Razvan Vasilescu

  • Dan Chisu – Aniversarea AKA The Anniversary (2017)

    2011-2020Dan ChisuDramaRomania

    A spacious apartment in the centre of Bucharest and a large family gathered together to celebrate the birthday of its frail, 94-year-old patriarch: anything could happen in Dan Chişu’s overcomplicated family drama The Anniversary [+], which is competing in the International Competition of the Warsaw International Film Festival (13-22 October). What emerges from so many bubbly relationships and effervescent reactions is the fact that Romania’s society is still struggling (and is still far from succeeding) to redeem, fight or at least forget its communist past, with death and old age being powerful allies in this endeavour.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Balanta AKA The Oak (1992)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaLucian PintilieRomania

    Quote:
    In 1988, Nela, a young schoolteacher, tries to carry out the will of her late father, an officer of the Securitate (Ceausescu’s secret police) who wants his body to be used for medical research. She decides to leave Bucharest to teach in a small provincial town, where she meets Mitica, a doctor at the hospital who is obsessed with saving the life of a Christlike patient whom the authorities wish to let die. They both share an odd sense of humor and see themselves as kindred spirits, but their relationship produces less than welcome results. The Oak is a vivid look at Romania before Ceausescu’s downfall.Read More »

  • Lucian Pintilie – Niki Ardelean, colonel în rezerva AKA Niki and Flo (2003)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaLucian PintilieRomania

    Quote:
    A very black comedy (and virtually unknown in the U.S.), Niki and Flo is about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage. Angela and her husband have decided to leave Romania for a better life in the United States. Niki, Angela’s father, who is also a former colonel in the Romanian army, is torn between his wish to see his daughter happy and his desire to have her close by; meanwhile Flo, the father of Niki’s son-in-law and a domestic tyrant of sorts, slowly exerts his control over Niki. Courtesy of Filmex Romania. Based on a screen play by Cristi Puiu.Read More »

  • Cristian Nemescu – California Dreamin’ (Nesfarsit) (2007)

    2001-2010Cristian NemescuDramaRomania

    Plot Synopsis from allmovie.com
    Romanian director Cristian Nemescu’s comedy California Dreamin’ unfolds against the backdrop of the Kosovo War, circa 1999. A NATO train rolls through a Romanian hamlet, transporting a plethora of weapons across the country – without official documents, and equipped only with the verbal consent of the Romanian authorities. The transport thus grows intensely vulnerable to the locals – particularly the head of the railway station, who moonlights as a mobster.Read More »

  • Dan Pita – Femeia visurilor AKA Dream Woman (2005)

    2001-2010ArthouseDan PitaDramaRomania

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    This full feature movie presents the story of a renowned director, Thomas (Dan Condurache), at the peak of his career, obsessed by the hallucinations of the desired woman, but also of his creative problems. Although his movies are awarded, and he is loved by the public, by actors and friends, Thomas is tormented by the desire to direct the movie of his life.Read More »

  • Szabolcs Hajdu – Délibáb AKA Mirage (2014)

    2011-2020ArthouseHungarySzabolcs HajduWestern

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    Synopsis: “Mirage tells the story of an African football player in a small Hungarian town, who commits a crime and has to flee. He finds refuge on a farm deep in the Hungarian flatland. Soon he realizes that the farm is a modern slave camp where he is forced to fight for his freedom and ultimately his life.”

    Quote:
    The Hungarian plains might as well be Sergio Leone’s American West in Szabolcs Hajdu’s Mirage, an atmospheric fable whose setting feels like no place, any time. Isaach De Bankolé, as the loner who shows up here for reasons we never learn and contends with a gang of slave-driving farmers, carries a film that is philosophically related to but more satisfying than Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control. The picture should draw well at fests, but is willfully obscure enough that, sans an auteur whose name is known in the States, it may be a hard sell here. – John Defore, VarietyRead More »

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