PHOTO // Well-known Romanian actor, three memorable roles to be screened at Romanian Film Days

Actor Florin Piersic will be honored with a retrospective at the 12th edition of the Romanian Film Days in Chisinau. Loved by audiences on both banks of the Prut River, Florin Piersic celebrated his 90th birthday in January 2026, marking almost 70 years devoted to an outstanding artistic career on stage and screen. He himself selected, from his extensive filmography, the three landmark titles to be presented to audiences in Chisinau.

The 12th edition also includes two films for children and families (a classic animation and a recent live-action feature, released this year at the Berlin Film Festival), a masterclass by special guest Laurentiu Damian, and the launch of an important Romanian-language cinema book signed by Liri Chapelan.

The full schedule can be found on the www.zfrmd.ro website, as well as on the festival’s Facebook page. The event will take place at Cineplex Loteanu and Cinema Odeon during September 17-20, 2026. As always, admission to all screenings will be free. For films presented at Cineplex Loteanu, advance reservations for zero-value tickets are required at the cinema box office; screenings at Cinema Odeon will operate on a first-come, first-served basis.





Born in Cluj to parents from Bukovina on January 27, 1936, Florin Piersic is one of Romania’s most popular film, theater, radio, and television actors. In 1958, he made his big-screen debut in The Thistles of the Baragan, an adaptation directed by French filmmaker Louis Daquin based on the work of Panait Istrati. The Romanian-French co-production marked the beginning of an impressive filmography comprising more than 50 titles. He worked with numerous leading Romanian directors, including Ion Popescu Gopo, Savel Știopul, Mihai Iacob, Mircea Drăgan, Francisc Munteanu, Sergiu Nicolăescu, Dinu Cocea, Gheorghe Naghi, Mircea Moldovan, Geo Saizescu, Virgil Calotescu, Adrian Petringenaru, Doru Năstase, Mircea Mureșan, Gheorghe Vitanidis, George Cornea, and Florin Piersic Jr. He also appeared in co-productions, working with directors such as Bernard Borderie, Károly Makk, and Robert Siodmak.

Piersic has received the TIFF Award and the Gopo Award for Lifetime Achievement, the UNITER Award for his entire career, Romania’s National Order of the Star of Romania, in rank of Officer, and the Mihai Eminescu Medal. He has also been named an honorary citizen of more than ten major Romanian cities, including Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. In 2012, the actor was granted citizenship of the Republic of Moldova. In his letter to the country’s president, Florin Piersic explained that he was warmly received and loved by people in Moldova, and that his father had worked as a veterinarian both in Bukovina and Bessarabia, in Chernivtsi and Soroca, respectively.











The Retro Florin Piersic 90 programme at the 2026 Romanian Film Days includes three feature films personally selected by the actor: The Paratroopers (directed by Dinu Cocea, 1973), Pintea (directed by Mircea Moldovan, 1976), and The Road of Bones (directed by Doru Năstase, 1980). Laurențiu Damian, president of the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union, will discuss these films with the audience.





Laurențiu Damian is a Romanian director and screenwriter, a professor and PhD holder at the “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Film Arts (UNATC) in Bucharest, and president of the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union. He is also an honorary member of the Italian Cinematheque in Milan and a member of the UPFAR and UARF unions.

He graduated from UNATC and attended specialized courses in documentary and television filmmaking in Romania and abroad. In 2003, he earned a Doctor Magna cum laude degree in Cinematography and Media. He has written film scripts, produced films, and directed more than 100 documentaries, short films, feature films, and experimental films, receiving numerous valuable awards. He is the author of more than 600 studies and articles on film history and aesthetics published in specialist journals.

Laurentiu Damian will deliver the masterclass “Auteur Cinema: Between Aesthetics and Dramaturgical Concept” for students at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts (AMTAP) in Chisinau.









At each edition, the Romanian Film Days dedicates a section of its programme to young audiences. At its 12th edition, the festival is offering two films for children and families, one of them very recent and being screened for the first time in Moldova: Atlas of the Universe, directed by Paul Negoescu, a live-action feature released at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention in the Generation Kplus section. The film has also been screened and awarded at other notable international festivals, including Sofia, Cannes Écrans Juniors, SIFF on the Coast, Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival, Busan International Kids & Youth Film Festival, Minneapolis St. Paul, Zlin, Europe on Screen, and TIFF Cluj-Napoca.





Alongside Atlas of the Universe, the Romanian Film Days programme in Chișinău is once again offering a classic Romanian children’s film, as it has in previous years. This time, it is Robinson Crusoe (1974), the first Romanian animated feature film, made in collaboration with Italy. The film is an adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s novel of the same name, directed by Victor Antonescu and Francesco Maurizio Guido “Gibba.”

The 12th edition of the Romanian Film Days also includes the launch of a valuable cinema book recently published in Romanian, in partnership with Carturesti bookstores. In the lobby of Cineplex Loteanu, before the opening gala on September 17, the volume, The Afterlife of Media: Persistence, Resistance, Reinvention, will be launched in the presence of its author, Liri Chapelan, an archivist and researcher at UNATC Bucharest and Babeș-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, as well as a curator at the Romanian Cinematheque in Bucharest.





The Romanian Film Days cinema event is continuing its tradition of traveling across the country this year. In addition to Chișinău, screenings will take place in ten other cities of Moldova: Hancesti (September 17), Nisporeni (September 18), Calarasi (September 19), Straseni (September 20), Cimislia (September 23), Ungheni (September 24), Floresti (September 25), Sangerei (September 26), Balti (September 26–27), and Cahul (October 9–10).







More information can be found on the Facebook page of the Romanian Film Days in Chișinău (ZFR Chisinau) and on the zfrmd.ro website.

ZFR Chișinău is a cinema event organized by the Association of Independent Filmmakers of Moldova ALTERNATIVE CINEMA and Romania’s ROVA FILM production company.

The 12th edition of the Romanian Film Days in Chișinău project is funded by the National Cinematography Center of Moldova, the Culture Ministry of Moldova, the Mihai Eminescu Romanian Cultural Institute in Chișinău, the National Cinematography Center of Romania, and the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union.

Partners: Moldova Film, Cineplex Loteanu, DACIN SARA, the “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Film Arts (UNATC) in Bucharest, the National Film Archive of Romania, and the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts (AMTAP) in Chișinău.

Sponsors: BT Leasing, PrintCaro, Diego Sky, Trigor, Symbol Media, and Raquette fashion house.

General media partner: TVR Moldova.

Media partners: Realitatea TV, Radio Chișinău, Vocea Basarabiei, Ziarul de Gardă, Agora, Ziarul Național, Moldpres, Unimedia, Deschide.md, Agro TV, Tezaur TV, FILM Magazine, and Cinemaraton.

 





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