In the 1970s and 1980s, Radio Free Europe reported the abuse suffered by Romanians under the pressure of the communist state and Party, and was also a channel through which people could express their discontent with the political status quo. But to the communist apparatus, the radio station was a deadly enemy.

Cold Waves unfolds as a love and hate story woven around something that one could neither see, nor touch, nor weigh: the radio waves which crossed borders and connected the country's population with what was happening beyond Romania's sealed-off borders.

'Just listen to the voices and you might get a better picture of recent history', is the credo of film-maker Alexandru Solomon.

Awards

IDFA Amsterdam; Leipzig Dok, Goteborg International Film Festival, London Documentary Film Festival

Alexandru Solomon

In the early 1990s, when Solomon emerged as a young director of photography, documentary film was largely considered aesthetically and politically bankrupt in Romania, due to its long-term assimilation with the previous propaganda of the state and socialist party. Solomon was among the first Romanian film-makers who committed themselves to a then compromised genre; today, almost a decade later, he is the leading political film-maker coming out of Romania and active on the international documentary scene. His recent work triggered public debates about the function of documentary film within the public sphere and contributed to re-establishing documentary film as an arena for reframing Romania's recent history. Solomon's previous work, The Great Communist Bank Robbery (2004), broadcast as part of BBC4's prestigious Storyville series and presented last year in our festival, was awarded Best Film at the History Film Festival in Pessac, France, the Prize for Social Values at Documenta Madrid and the Grand Prix in Mediawave, Hungary. Cold Waves is a chilling slice of political history from a film-maker on a mission.