Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Ruxandra Grecu Porumboiu's film is extremely funny (in a very Romanian way), and it's also very realistic. It's like I know all those crazy characters... The old man saying "It was better in the communist regime", most of the people calling just because they can and not because they have something important to say... I was very fond of the history teacher and I kept hoping that someone would call to rehabilitate him... I felt like they were stealing the most important moment of his life, his minutes of glory. He didn't have any witnesses to his presence there. And you know what happens: people with common sense, even alcoholics, they don't think they should defend themselves for something they did... and he said simply that he was there. his only friend, the Chinese shop-owner, tried to defend him, but was rejected by the rich guy, in a very prejudiced kind of way, that we see here so much... I found myself knowing that it was true... he was there before 12.08, and there was a revolution in that town, thanks to the four teachers. I guess everybody has to decide what he believes. I believe good people like Manescu never get a lucky break i this country, they are just considered suckers. And rich guys know how to manipulate people around them, like Bejan, the former secret service guy. (By the way, every member of the secret service said they were on holiday, just like Bejan). I hope Porumboiu makes us another good movie very soon!

dromasca The maturity and complexity of the cinema shown by Corneliu Prumboiu in this first film is amazing. In one strike he finds his place in the first ranks of the Romanian 'new wave' - one of the most interesting cinema schools that has emerged in the last few years.The story is divided into two. In the first part we see the principal characters preparing for a TV debate about the events that led 16 years earlier to the change of regime in Romania. The landscape is of a remote small city in eastern Romania, dominated by stagnation and corruption, which seems to have benefited little from the events 16 years ago. The characters live a limited lives, their aspiration are limited by their own demagogy, by age, by alcohol. They seem to descend both from Caragiale the greatest Romanian humorist (and maybe one the greatest world-wide, unfortunately little known out of Romania) and Sebastian, a Romanian Jewish playwright in the first half of the 20th century who focuses his work on the dreams of provincial people.The second part is the debate itself, in real time and in the limited space of the TV studio. Fixed enclosures are a preferred location for many memorable scenes in the Romanian cinema lately, like the family dinner in '4 month, 3 weeks, 2 days' or the room in the Ukranian wilderness in master Lucian Pintile last film 'Tertium non datur'. And yet, a lot happens in this fixed space in the time-span of a TV debate, comical drama revealing behind the words the truth about the Romanian revolution - the empty present is based upon an empty past. Such locations allow Romanian actors to be at their best, and the emotions and message is based on their act. Here all actors play wonderfully, with a special mention for Mircea Andreescu.Anghelescu's character has his own theory about the Romanian revolution. 'Let me explain you' he says, 'there is a time for anything to happen. It's like electric lights in a city, you have sensors that tell when night descends and when day breaks, and lights turn on and off automatically'. Really? Was indeed time of communism off in Romania in 1989 and conditions rip to turn on democracy? Was there or was there not a revolution? The film begins with daybreak and electric lights being turned off in the provincial city, and ends with the night descending and a purifying snowfall covering the mud. But then one must remember that lights are really turned on and off by pushbuttons from the control center.

rotildao It is a great way to deal with your own faults, if one can be the judge of that, when you deal it with humor. The more serious things appear to be, the funnier they can get... well... tragedy and comedy are always hand in hand with things in life anyway. So is this movie. You have to allow the movie a few minutes to get it going really, but, keep your eyes and ears open right from the start and it will make you want to watch it again, at least one more time it will. I was very little aware of Romanian history, and this is like a bonus gift, a treat you get for watching and being open to other cultures... I guess it helps you understand yourself better as well. I love the European sense of humor and this one does not escape the rules, and added with a little poetry, hahahaha... what a way to spend a nice weekend watching a nice movie like this one.

sake herbert ...a revolution in our town? This is not a movie about the revolution, it's a movie about life. You will notice perhaps how the writer inserts new elements on top of the old ones. The city, the people, their every day life seems to be the same. But there they are, a mobile phone next to the old furniture, the sofa with the carpet on it, a shiny car over the grey background of a building, the Chinese man who can speak romanian surprisingly well. These are signs of change, since the revolution, as the transformation was intended to be seen here. Also you will notice that the name of the town is hidden in all scenes: " Primaria (imagine brad de craciun)UI va ureaza..." ("The city hall of (the image of the Christmas Tree)UI is wishing you a Merry Christmnas!"). Also in the TV show, the name of the town is never mentioned, being replaced instead with "our town". This may be the writer's idea of cutting down the importance of the event (my guess). Another subtle way of summarizing the whole movie is right at the beginning of it: "the lightening of the street lamps", idea further carried out by Mr. Puşcoci: "The street lamps light up down-town first, and then one-by-one all the way to the suburbs".So that is the way the revolution was seen. The comic part of the movie as others may have suggested is actually the reality of people trying to do what they see and think is good, to feel better about themselves, to appear better in the eyes of others, even if it is too late(Mr. Puşcoci's wife is dead), is about growing up and struggling to do better. I liked the music, the paper boats Mr. Puşcoci makes during the TV show, the way the wife tries to convince her husband to give her money for their daughter's vacation by showing him an old photo, the way a new day starts when the street lamps turn off,etc.