RCINY co-presents from November 15 to 20, in collaboration with seven European cultural institutes in NYC,

CRIME SCENE: EUROPE
The 8th New Literature from Europe Festival in New York

With the participation of Ana Maria Sandu
A noir film program complements this year’s literary fest


Europe is in the midst of a crime wave—a surge of creative and innovative detective fiction that pays its respects to the traditions of noir while incorporating the psychological novel, the political thriller, and the border-crossings that reflect the increasingly globalized culture of the EU. The eighth annual New Literature from Europe Festival organized by eight European Cultural Institutes in New York, will present a series of readings and discussions in Manhattan and Brooklyn from November 15-17, 2011, with writers Caryl Ferey (France), Zygmunt Miloszewski (Poland), Ana Maria Sandu (Romania), Stefan Slupetzky (Austria), Jose Carlos Somoza (Spain), and Jan Costin Wagner (Germany), joined by U.S. guest author Dan Fesperman.

Ana Maria Sandu (b. 1974, living and working in Bucharest) is a Romanian novelist and cultural journalist. Her books, translated in French and Italian (upcoming), include From the Memories of a Chelbasan (2003), The Girl From the Oblong House (2006), Kill me! (2010). 

Ana Maria Sandu will join the festival to present her latest novel, Kill me! (Omoară-mă), a captivating story about the perverse power of storytelling and the way fiction can become more ‘real’ than reality. The novel tells of the relationship between two women, whose friendship begins well – an older woman makes an offer to host a younger one in her apartment. Their shared life ends three years later with a crime. What seems to be the beginning of a love story – the encounter between Vali and Ramona – imperceptibly transforms into a terrifying policier: the main character of the novel proves to be Veronica Manea, the sixty years old woman who behaves like a vampire and re-lives the passion of her youth. The spider net that Veronica Manea weaves around the younger Ramona surround both of them. Old ghostly and disquieting love interests are projected against the background of exotic sites. Ramona enters Veronica Manea’s dangerous game and the only way out is a crime; which proves not to be a real solution. Excerpts in English translated by Alistair Ian Blyth.

A special film series complements this year’s spoken word programs, featuring both adaptations of crime novels and new approaches to the genre that play with the conventions of film noir. The term film noir was coined by European critics in the 1940s to describe a group of American crime movies; these critics found depth and resonance in movies that were not yet taken seriously in their home country. In the series Crime Scene: Europe, presented in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image from November 18 to 20, directors from across the Continent create their own shades of noir, with innovative approaches to the hard-boiled genre. The series ranges from Czech and Austrian films of the 1940s and early 1950s rarely seen in the U.S. to contemporary productions from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania. Authors Zygmunt Miloszewski and Jan Costin Wagner will be present to discuss film versions of their novels featured in the Festival. 

One of the series highlights is the 2010 critically acclaimed production of AURORA, written and directed by Cristi Puiu. “A slow-burning tour de force.” (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times), "a murder- mystery in which the killer’s identity is known but his motives are not. Remarkable. [...] As confounding in its way as L'Avventura must have seemed in 1960." (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). Read more about the film

The festival is organized by the New York branches of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Czech Center, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Goethe-Institut, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Polish Cultural Institute, Romanian Cultural Institute, and Instituto Cervantes, within the framework of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture), in collaboration with the Center for Fiction, BookCourt, Museum of the Moving Image, The Mysterious Bookshop, InTranslation, Words without Borders.


[Image: Ana Maria Sandu. Photo by Mihai Grecea]