It is being billed as Romania's gifte to London in the year of the Olympics. East Meets East will see new wave filmmakers Radu Muntean, Alexandru Baciu and Catalin Cristutiu, plus award-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days star Anamaria Marinca, work with the city's disadvantaged youth to develop their skills and create two new short films.
The project is being run by the Romanian Cultural Institute in partnership with film and photography locus Four Corners, and it will draw on talent from the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Greenwich, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barking and Dagenham. 20 young people will attend three workshops and masterclasses to learn about everything from storyboarding through to editing the final cut, with the resulting films to be screened at the East End Film Festival in July.