Cannes 2007 was great for the Romanian cinema. While Cristian Mungiu's '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days' was collecting the 'Palme d'Or' another Romanian movie was receiving the alternative 'Un Certain Regard' prize. This was a debut big screen film but unfortunately also an and of career film, as director Cristian Nemescu died in a car accident last year.
The story based on real events happens in the Wild East landscape of 1998 Romania, the period of transition, a time when everything can happen even in places where usually nothing happens. The main character named Doiaru is one of the dubious 'entrepeneurs' of the era, he is the chief of a railway station trying to get rich by almost openly stealing from the freight trains that pass through his station. He's the type of guy who doesn't miss an opportunity. When a military transport guarded by a small American unit on its way to the NATO war scene in Yugoslavia enters his fief he decides to stop it under the pretext that the transport misses the necessary paperwork. It is not clear why he is doing it, he does not accept bribes, he certainly is not a lawful citizen, and even politics do not seem to be his motivation. Maybe it's just personal, maybe he just wants to show he is in control. The result is that the American soldiers and their commanding officer captain Jones which had over-passed until then at modern vehicles speed all the horse-driven carriages of the Romanian peasants find themselves suddenly stuck as a situation that resembles some spaceship having landed on an unknown planet.
We know from flashback scenes run in parallel with the main action that Doiaru is the son in a family of the enemies of the former Communist rule, the type of guys who had been waiting for decades as most of the Romanian people for the West and especially from the Americans to come to their rescue. In one of the key scenes in the movie Doiaru tells Jones something like: 'We have been waiting for you since War War II. You did not come to rescue us from the Germans, you did not come to rescue us from the Russians, you did not come to rescue us from the communists and Ceausescu. Now you come?' Actually what is left to be saved in 1990 Romania? Maybe to save the Romanian from themselves seems to say the authors of the movie who are extremely critical about the state of the Romanian society represented by the village in the middle of nowhere. A society where corruption and demagogy seems to be the rule, which mimics democracy without understanding or practicing it, where even the dreams of the young seem to be corrupt.
The other question is whether the Americans can play the role of saviors. Doubful seems the film to be saying. For the majority of the movie the two groups cannot communicate one with the other and when they do they rather mis-communicate than communicate. If Romania and the West lost contact half a century ago re-connecting does not seem a simple task, as history has brought the two worlds not on parallel by remote and separate Universes. Even when commander Jones decides to do what to him looks like the right thing and takes part his decision is based on mis-communication and lack of understanding of the local culture and policy. The result is a disaster, people kill one another when the Americans leave, and those are not even aware about what happened as they have again mis-interpreted the shooting nosies and fireworks prepared by the local gangsters to hide the noise as something organized in their honor.
This is a complex movie that can be interpreted at different levels. At the political level it is a strong critic of the corruption and moral emptiness of the Romanian society and of the cultural insensitivity and lack of compassion of the West for the young nations in Eastern Europe, as well as a pessimistic view on chances of intervention. At a human level there is little compassion for any of the parts, maybe the young people are somehow looked at more sympathetically, their perspective also seems to be limited. The story telling is cursive, characters speak to us and actors really meld into the film. The best was for me Razvan Vasilescu, a genial actor who already made a few roles that describe best the character of the villains of the Romanian transition.
Cristian Nemescu could not finish the film, and the title bears a sign - 'nesfarsit' means literally 'not terminated' and 'endless' speaking figuratively. It does not look by any means as an unfinished piece of cinema, and I like to believe that the title rather symbols the permanence of what happens in the movie, the need to recognize that building a sound future cannot be done without acknowledging what happened in the past.
The story based on real events happens in the Wild East landscape of 1998 Romania, the period of transition, a time when everything can happen even in places where usually nothing happens. The main character named Doiaru is one of the dubious 'entrepeneurs' of the era, he is the chief of a railway station trying to get rich by almost openly stealing from the freight trains that pass through his station. He's the type of guy who doesn't miss an opportunity. When a military transport guarded by a small American unit on its way to the NATO war scene in Yugoslavia enters his fief he decides to stop it under the pretext that the transport misses the necessary paperwork. It is not clear why he is doing it, he does not accept bribes, he certainly is not a lawful citizen, and even politics do not seem to be his motivation. Maybe it's just personal, maybe he just wants to show he is in control. The result is that the American soldiers and their commanding officer captain Jones which had over-passed until then at modern vehicles speed all the horse-driven carriages of the Romanian peasants find themselves suddenly stuck as a situation that resembles some spaceship having landed on an unknown planet.
We know from flashback scenes run in parallel with the main action that Doiaru is the son in a family of the enemies of the former Communist rule, the type of guys who had been waiting for decades as most of the Romanian people for the West and especially from the Americans to come to their rescue. In one of the key scenes in the movie Doiaru tells Jones something like: 'We have been waiting for you since War War II. You did not come to rescue us from the Germans, you did not come to rescue us from the Russians, you did not come to rescue us from the communists and Ceausescu. Now you come?' Actually what is left to be saved in 1990 Romania? Maybe to save the Romanian from themselves seems to say the authors of the movie who are extremely critical about the state of the Romanian society represented by the village in the middle of nowhere. A society where corruption and demagogy seems to be the rule, which mimics democracy without understanding or practicing it, where even the dreams of the young seem to be corrupt.
The other question is whether the Americans can play the role of saviors. Doubful seems the film to be saying. For the majority of the movie the two groups cannot communicate one with the other and when they do they rather mis-communicate than communicate. If Romania and the West lost contact half a century ago re-connecting does not seem a simple task, as history has brought the two worlds not on parallel by remote and separate Universes. Even when commander Jones decides to do what to him looks like the right thing and takes part his decision is based on mis-communication and lack of understanding of the local culture and policy. The result is a disaster, people kill one another when the Americans leave, and those are not even aware about what happened as they have again mis-interpreted the shooting nosies and fireworks prepared by the local gangsters to hide the noise as something organized in their honor.
This is a complex movie that can be interpreted at different levels. At the political level it is a strong critic of the corruption and moral emptiness of the Romanian society and of the cultural insensitivity and lack of compassion of the West for the young nations in Eastern Europe, as well as a pessimistic view on chances of intervention. At a human level there is little compassion for any of the parts, maybe the young people are somehow looked at more sympathetically, their perspective also seems to be limited. The story telling is cursive, characters speak to us and actors really meld into the film. The best was for me Razvan Vasilescu, a genial actor who already made a few roles that describe best the character of the villains of the Romanian transition.
Cristian Nemescu could not finish the film, and the title bears a sign - 'nesfarsit' means literally 'not terminated' and 'endless' speaking figuratively. It does not look by any means as an unfinished piece of cinema, and I like to believe that the title rather symbols the permanence of what happens in the movie, the need to recognize that building a sound future cannot be done without acknowledging what happened in the past.