Director Natalie Musteata, winner of the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for 'Two People Exchanging Saliva', will open the 10th edition of the American Independent Film Festival, which will take place in Bucharest between 5 and 7 June.

According to a press release from the organisers sent to AGERPRES on Monday, the first filmmaker of Romanian origin to win an Academy Award will take to the festival stage in Bucharest for an open talk about the experiences that have shaped her personal and professional journey, as well as the path that led her to the Oscars.

'Two People Exchanging Saliva' will be screened for Romanian audiences on the big screen as the opening film of the American Independent Film Festival.

'Two People Exchanging Saliva' is a dystopian short set in an absurd society where kissing is forbidden and punishable by death, and people pay for goods by receiving slaps across the face. The story follows Angine, an unhappy woman who shops compulsively in a department store. There she develops a small obsession with Malaise, a young and charming sales assistant. The two women manage to grow closer, but their relationship begins to attract the suspicions of a jealous colleague in a world where any form of intimacy is strictly controlled. The film uses this absurd premise to explore themes such as repression, desire, social control and the fragility of personal freedoms, suggesting that simple gestures of tenderness can become acts of resistance in an authoritarian system, according to the film's description.

The short film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.

The American Independent Film Festival is organised by the Cinemascop Association and Voodoo Films. The event is dedicated to independent film, American culture and lifestyle, and aims to promote cultural and educational values among audiences in Romania through cinema. Over the eight editions held so far, the festival has brought to Romania a selection of recent American independent productions, praised by critics and presented at major festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, Telluride, Toronto, Berlin, Venice and Cannes.

Previous editions of the festival have featured actors and directors including Joaquin Phoenix, Ethan Hawke, John C. Reilly, Sebastian Stan, Mary-Louise Parker, Roberto Minervini and Jacques Audiard.

Audiences in Bucharest have also had the opportunity to take part in live conversations with leading figures of contemporary American cinema, including Barry Jenkins, Sean Baker, Paul Schrader, Alexander Payne and Steven Spielberg. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Petronius Craiu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)