Tickets are now available for the 18th edition of One World Romania, the country’s leading international documentary and human rights film festival. The festival, running from 4 to 13 April across three Bucharest cinemas—Peasant Museum Cinema, Elvire Popesco, and Union—will present over 50 films, including seven Romanian features, under a unifying theme of breaking through social and political bubbles via the power of documentary.
Opening the festival on 4 April is Ana Rieper’s Paradise, a Brazilian archival documentary that investigates the colonial legacy still haunting the country today. The film uses music and historical footage to explore power dynamics rooted in land and slavery.
The closing gala on 12 April will feature Fiume o morte!, a daring reconstruction of Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio’s occupation of the Croatian city of Fiume. Directed by Igor Bezinović, the film won top honors at the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Highlights of this year’s Romanian program include Bright Future by Andra MacMasters, which chronicles a Cold War-era youth festival in North Korea, and Forbidden, Anelise Sălan’s emotional account of a same-sex Romanian couple’s legal fight for recognition at the European Court of Human Rights.
Environmental activism takes center stage in Tooth and Nail, by Mihai Gavril Dragolea and Radu Mocanu, documenting the struggle against illegal logging in Romania. Meanwhile, CALIU: Nothing Else, What Else Can I Do?, part of the Youth Days program, follows the aging but irrepressible violinist Gheorghe Anghel—known as Caliu—as he attempts a late-career reinvention.
The new «OWR Friends» section will spotlight filmmakers and projects nurtured by the festival over the years. This includes TATA by Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc, a personal story of familial trauma and healing, and An Almost Perfect Family, Tudor Platon’s intimate portrait of love and separation.
After the Bucharest run, select films will be available for online streaming across Romania from 14 to 30 April.
For the full program and updates, visit oneworld.ro.
