Several Conversations About a Very Tall Girl, a semi-documentary exploration of love between two girls in one apartment, stands apart thematically from contemporary Romanian cinema. As such it has encountered both acclaim, for instance in four nominations for the Gopo Romanian film awards, and incomprehension. “In Bucharest it was positively received. But elsewhere the film was accused of promoting lesbian relationships. People were curious why a man had made a film about lesbians and how he could know anything about them,” actress Florentina Nastase said at Febiofest.
She and co-star Silvana Mihai regarded the story as just another form of romance. However, they are aware that, beyond artistic circles, expressing different sexual orientation in their country is not easy. There was even a referendum in Romania recently about changing the constitution to enshrine marriage as a union between men and women only. “We sabotaged the referendum. Turnout was only around 10 percent, so it wasn’t valid. But it shows that even those in positions of authority have a problem with homosexuality,” the actresses said.
Fortunately their own families responded positively to Several Conversations About a Very Tall Girl, which is being screened in Febiofest’s Queer Now section. “For instance, my grandmother liked the film a lot. I was proud. We never spoke openly about sex at home, so I was glad that my family responded to it so openly,” said Mihai.