Beginning Saturday, December 5th, some great award-winning Romanian films will be premiering on Link's airwaves. Ranging from indictments of the totalitarian Ceauşescu regime to explorations of contemporary social mores, these films come from a new crop of young Romanian directors -- the new wave -- and illuminate the changing society that is today's Romania. Some highlights include this week's premiere of Muntean's The Paper Will Be Blue, Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest, and Cristi Puiu’s Stuff and Dough. And two great shorts are now available to watch online -- Hanno Hofer's tale of a village postman, Dincolo, and Humanitarian Aid.

The Romanian new wave has been a favorite in the film critic world for several years, catching the attention of the New York Times's A.O. Scott, among others. But most Americans haven't had the opportunity to see these great films from a country once known primarily for gymnastics -- until now.

Link TV proudly presents these films in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. Readers in NYC shouldn't miss this weekend's 4th Annual Romanian Film Festival at the Tribeca Cinemas -- more info is available at icrny.org.

Link TV editor Kyung Lee reports from the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea.  Currently the biggest film festival in Asia, PIFF showcases new talents and films from the Asian countries.  This blog offers rare interviews with Asian directors who discuss their filmmaking experiences in their native countries.

The current situation of Afghanistan is hard for outsiders to grasp.  Almost every day we hear the news of heightened insurgency in the country, but little beyond that.  In this extremely uncertain situation, there is a filmmaker who has managed to make films that reflect the reality of Afghanistan.
 
Siddiq Barmak is currently one of only a few filmmakers in Afghanistan who is able to make feature films in his native country.  His first feature film, "Osama", portrays a young girl who is forced to don a disguise as a boy in order to support her mother in the Taliban era.  The film won a Golden Globe Award, and made a great demonstration of Afghanistan's film heritage and its possible future to the world.

Siddiq, who was born in Afghanistan and studied film in Moscow, was exiled to Pakistan during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2002.  The current reemergence of the insurgency is a reminder for him that another dark time may be ahead.  He was at the Pusan International Film Festival this year to present his second feature film "Opium War" which is, according to the director, "an exact reflection of the situation."  I was able to catch the director and asked a few questions on the current state in Afghanistan.

Learn more at about the films Opium War and Osama.

Mosaic's Jalal Ghazi must be a busy guy, sifting through news broadcasts from all over the Middle East by day as Associate Producer for Link TV's Mosaic, and screening the latest in Palestinian film by night. We enjoyed Ghazi's latest contribution to New America Media, "Palestinian Films With a Woman's Touch," and think you will too.

Ghazi reports on "a new kind of Intifada" taking place among women in Palestinian cinema, where "instead of stones, bullets or bombs" they are telling the Palestinian story through film. Several of the films surveyed were screened, or will be screened, at San Francisco's Arab Film Festival, and the article includes trailers and interviews with the filmmakers. See inside the often hidden world of an ordinary Palestinian - and ordinary Palestinian women in particular - and check out these extraordinary films!

Roxana Saberi, fiancé of accomplished Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, is being held in an Iranian jail under accusations of espionage. Her arrest has sparked widespread outrage, as witnessed in this New York Times editorial. In an open letter posted online, Ghobadi asserts her innocence and expresses that he has become frustrated trying to work as a filmmaker in Iran -- his films banned, released on the black market, and future projects not given authorization.

But Ghobadi says he does not want to leave Iran without Saberi, according to the LA Times.

Bahman Ghobadi's film, A Time for Drunken Horses, has previously been featured in Link TV's CINEMONDO lineup, and in May 2007, Peter Scarlet interviewed Ghobadi in northern Iraq: