1st Transylvanian International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania

Abstract

Other first film festivals should have it so good. Every guest arriving from abroad to attend the First Transylvanian International Film Festival (3-9 June 2002) in the Romanian city of Cluj (formerly Klausenburg) asked the same question: "Where's Dracula's castle, and how can I get there?" To which Tudor Giurgiu, the festival's founder-director, responded with an same amused grin: "Stay around until closing night: we're screening Murnau's Nosferatu to musical accompaniment!" Just another way of saying that no less than four castles lay claim to Dracula's hideout. "Probably Bram Stoker meant the castle in Sighisoara (formerly Schässburg)," said one informed source. "Schässburg is a 13th-century museum town, only an hour's drive away."Forget Dracula's castle on your first visit to Cluj-Napoca, inhabited by the Dacians in ancient times and founded by the Romans in the 2nd century. The city with the most moviegoers in Romania, Cluj (formerly part of Austria-Hungary) has academies...