"Gruber's Journey": The First Small Step

Gruber's Journey, directed by Mr. Radu Gabrea, is a well-documented film that tries to do justice to a tragic historical event, silenced for too long.
Curzio Malaparte, as written in his own journal 'Kaputt', recounts how personal life mixes with grand history and how he himself turns into a key witness of the event. While coming to Iasi in June 1941 and looking for the Jewish Dr. Josef Gruber to treat his allergy, Malaparte finds himself involved in the dramatic event of 12,000 Jewish civilians being mass murdered at Podu Iloaiei.
Being present at the official premiere last night in Iasi, I was wondering why government funded films lack the brightness and the vibe to propel them to international heights. And also how embarrassing ass-kissing can be during these presentations...
I believe the film - as perceived sitting near probably the most elderly Jewish man in the audience - misses the point of revealing the deep tragedy and launches on an overrated narcissistic criticism of the inability of the local people to organize things (an image, in fact, that neither my friends nor I recognize ourselves in).
However, Mr. Marcel Iures is absolutely brilliant, indeed, in portraying Dr. Gruber and also notable are Florin Piersic Jr., as Malaparte, and Claudiu Bleont - highly talented young actors.

"The Trap" - Another Lesson We Must Learn

The day of April the 7th marked another day we should remember - thousands of Moldavian students and youngsters came together in an act of freedom - of opinion, of communication, of rights. Can they all be wrong? Can't they all be heard by the big democratic officials? "The Trap" is a striking recount of what happened...
Quite often I am under the impression that history is just repeating...

"Police, Adj." - A Case of Consciousness.

Police, Adj. is Corneliu Porumboiu's latest film - written and directed in his unique style of filming, with long shots, long deep pauses, minimal but precise and sharp dialogue. In a world where we have been framed into receiving films and movies in a typical, standardized way, Police, adj. comes to challenge us into de-framing our mind, un-learning 'to watch a movie'. The best part of it is that it actually gives you the space and time to think . Every little pause, every little detail makes sense and is part of this apparently simple ordinary texture but masterfully and minutely crafted.
My friend and I last night took the director's opportunity to piece together little details like words written on walls, the position of houses, angles, shades, etc. For example, Cristi the young policeman asks his colleague to check a certain number plate and gives him the letters containing it - "AIC" - "A for Anca (female name), I for Iuda (Juda, the traitor), C for Cristi (male name)" or we could see these words written on a wall - "AF Trandafir executa / Rose Family Association Executes" which are very funny and ironic at the same time, linking directly with the end of the film.

Mr. Porumboiu works as an unseen creator who gives viewers the freedom to develop in time with the movie and his characters. At the latest edition of the International Film Festival in Sarajevo, he spoke about the link between film and time and the "time of being" as the essential element of his film vision - that the time of moving in a character is more important than any dialogue - and I think the concept of 'time of being' can be applied to viewers too as they - too - have their own time of being, of internalizing the film texture and the story. In this case, the story of the film is acutely modern and current - how young moral professionals succumb and accept defeat under the pressure of an artificial social system, but not only...

"Home Alone" - Documentary on Migration Effects

The local TV station 1TV has recently broadcast their striking "Home Alone" documentary on the situation of the elderly people left behind by those who go to the west in search of a better financial life. What do they leave behind? - "Pain - Loneliness - Poverty - Hope - Tears". Home Alone shows the naked heart-breaking truth of thousands of people over 60 years old who live a real drama under the powerless gaze of authorities... "You haven't died for 90 years, you won't die one or two months" is the shocking answer of a Romanian youngster to his elderly mother before heading for the west...The problem is they never stay away for just one month - so easily months turn into years until they themselves get tangled in their own life problems and become powerless themselves ...
Again, I believe that this is not just a local problem - as we have recently seen, any local problem is a global problem that will affect us all - in one way or another, sooner or later...

Pitesti: the Brainwash 'Re-education'

Beyond Torture: The Gulag of Pitesti is a documentary on a terrifying truth - in 1949, Soviet activists started to take young people from universities or high-schools and send them to a 're-education' prison in the city of Pitesti to turn them into communist thinkers... Father George Calciu says: "Many of us died, many of us got mad, but in some of us the good triunphed...They tried to destroy our souls." But he and a few others survived to tell the truth and even forgive their opressors.
This DVD contains impressive paintings by the young artist Sorin Feraru.
In my opinion, a continent, a world who do not know these past events is doomed to repeat them - in one way or another...

4 3 2 - Cristian Mungiu

The year 2007 brought the director Cristian Mungiu the greatest film award in Europe: Palme d'Or at Cannes with the most acclaimed film - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Needless to dwell on the story of abortion during the totalitarian regime, I must emphasize the art of silence that the young generation of Romanian directors seem to master so well and want to develop it further into 'unbearable suspense', laconic space, implied messages or even horror. Also, the talent of young actors like Anamaria Marinca or Laura Vasiliu proves to be extremely creative.
On the other hand, the movie is absolutely shocking and I think that movie-lovers should get introduced first to the context of this film story in order to be prepared to receive it as the judges at Cannes did and avoid feeling 'unconnected' to the characters in the end.

Up, Up and Upper...

It was such a joy to see this animation movie from Disney called "UP" - on Monday at around noon I was sharing a high-tech cinema room with a dad and his little son who couldn't read the subtitles to see the movie...not just the kid loved it but also we, the adults, simply because this is just so much better than an animation backed up by expensive advertising campaigns and the reason for this is that "Up" has an original story to tell... I'm sure people will discover the beauty of this story about dreams, adventure, authentic living, kids and elderly people in time, like the good going above the bad. It is surely an educational movie and such a nice opportunity to spend some high quality time with your child and laugh and get on edge together, like the guys in my cinema room... Brilliant!

'The Happiest Girl in the World' - Underneath that Silence...

The film titled "Cea mai fericita fata din lume" / "The Happiest Girl in the World", directed by Radu Jude and receiving the CICAE award at the Berlin Film Festival this year marks the debut of a young director with great potential.
Shot at 'ground 0' in Bucharest, this is a film about a so-called 'ordinary' life - with the due tragedy beyond the boredom and apparent nothing-ness. It's a film about modern constraints and brutality in the middle of which innocence gets squeezed...I'm looking forward to Radu Jude's next film!

'Slumdog Millionaire' - Redefining 'Poverty'

Who hasn't seen "Slumdog Millionaire" yet? I'm sure millions of you have already done so... Indeed, the director Danny Boyle has hit the jack pot of originality with young passionate actors and their fresh, genuine and natural characters.
I particularly admire the energy that comes out of this group of actors who act their lives out in an inspirational game of fiction-reality...
This movie proves also that cultural stereotypes we so easily attribute need doing away with - India is a massive space of colourful, even if conflicting, energy and spirit that we can all learn from...

"The Reader": " How far would you go to protect a secret?"

This is the question raised by "The Reader", directed by Stephen Daldry and with the excellent performance by Kate Winslet - an enchanting film about feeling and justice. Yet again we can see, in fact, the impossibility of doing justice in a 'complicated' history and how the less guilty take the responsibility of carrying the burden of the others...

When I left the movie theatre I felt the subject drifted the focus away and, at the same time, I could not forget the image that struck me most which was an image taken in Auschwitz: the thousands of worn out shoes piling up forming walls of shame and death.

"Revolutionary Road" - Getting Out of the 'Hopeless Emptiness'

"Revolutionary Road" - directed by Sam Mendes and with the script by Justin Haythe is definitely worth your time. The film cuts deep into the artificiality in the society, trying to be a wake-up call for our souls who never stopped longing for the real life...Is there any escape when we find ourselves in "hopeless emptiness"? As one character says, many of us realize it's empty but only a very few that it's hopeless.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio perform wonderfully and Mr. Mendes proves his worth once again, after the fascinating "American Beauty". I simply loved the way in which he experimented with silences and light and shadows, and also with movements of large masses of bodies, as opposed to individual ones - great artistic effects - so very human in getting across tense emotions...

"The Tale of Despereaux" - Helping to educate our children

In a world where authentic values are so difficult to teach and instill, movies like "The Tale of Despereaux" prove to be real companions in our mission as parents.

I simply loved how the 'out of the box' character appealingly presented the idea of fight against fear and honorable attitude towards events in our life.

Many kids can ask their parents so many essential questions after seeing this cartoon movie: What is justice? What is honor? What is truth? What is fear and how to fight it? What is control and who wants to control us and how? - The question is - are we ready, as parents to give them the right answers?

In a country which suffered from a totalitarian regime for several decades, this movie proves to be an interesting starting point for the discussion of fear and its paralysis effect on communities. I only wish it had been better marketed so that more kids and parents could come to the cinema.

Australia: Exploring Your Own Self

Australia - directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Brandon Walters - is, to be sure, a movie not to be missed. I simply loved the representative images of Australia. Who can resist them? ... The film wonderfully captures the spirit of the place - with its deep magic, racial and historic drama, spectacular scenery, all wrapped up in a beautiful story on family, love, inter-culture, faith...


My mom and I were impressed and enchanted all the same. The colours, the music, the real-life drama are simply spectacular!


Australia is, indeed, a magical place - very well marketed by the movie team in a very convincing way.

What does it mean "to drive"? Who is "a drover"? What is the limit between local culture and 'civilisation'? How does the native land revolte against all artificiality and human selfishness? Answers to all these questions, and more, are explored in a quest for doing justice to the Aborigines and understanding human interactivity from a more profound view.

In fact, all these questions transcend locality and refer further to us all, irrespective of the place we live in...For 2 hours and 40 min, this is a gripping experience that no one can regret. A really great project!

"This is just the beginning...We will conquer the world!" : "The Rest Is Silence" / "Restul e tacere", by Nae Caranfil

The Rest Is Silence/ Restul e tacere is Nae Caranfil's latest film, which combines craftsmanship, remarkable talent (on the part of both actors and director) and huge inspiration for audiences... It is a film on "moving shadows", as well as on the subtle weaving of fiction and reality, past and present - all immersed into the tragic-comedy substance...

The film is based on the true story of the making of the first Romanian film (on the War of Independence) at the beginning of the 20th century (1911).

The mix of worlds is impressive - the change brought by the cinema reflects the change of the whole society, in fact.
Young Grigore Ursache, or Grig for short, is the main persona (played spectacularly by Marius Florea Vizante) who must struggle in a world which constantly rejects him and looks down on him, by imposing his views, shrewdly and incisively, and turning, thus, his own ideas into reality...

This film is more than a film on the by-gone Romanian society at the turn of the previous century (however, its reconstruction must have been more than a challenge for the director and his staff - after the too long washbrain process of the communist regime in the second half of the 20th century). It is a film on the present ongoing struggle and clash between not necessarily generations but between different value systems, on the importance of change which assures communities the opportunity to develop and move forward, ultimately on the freedom and power of the individual to impose themselves against a system, as long as their ideas are valuable and have the force to generate others in their own right.

Personally, by watching this film, I have a more acute sense of present rather than a sense of past and my mental frameworks work much more in relation to the present contemporary society - the Romanian one, in particular and the global one, in general - rather than the past one... It is simply a Grand Film!