“The most acclaimed ‘New Wave’ in cinema today is in full flourish in this picaresque quintet of comic stories from Romania’s brightest new directors, led by Cristian Mungiu (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS). Each about twenty minutes long, these five delightfully absurdist tales of common life during the dictatorial era of Nicolae Ceausescu (termed ‘the golden age’ in communist propaganda) underline the strange reality and stranger rhetoric associated with living in a repressive society. State photographers forced to doctor the dictator’s images (to make him taller than a ‘capitalist’ politician); a family trying to kill a Christmas pig without their neighbors knowing; citizens who dream of getting ahead one egg, bottle, or carnival ride at a time: these tales showcase a state of fear and distrust, but also capture the laughter and camaraderie that kept people going. Mungiu directed two of the five episodes, but, to better capture the era’s feeling of collectivization (and uncertainty), none of the tales are credited to individuals.”—Steve Seid, Pacific Film Archive.

With support from the Romanian-American Society of Oregon.

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Both sad and darkly funny, THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU chronicles the last night in the life of a 63-year-old widower who lives alone in his disheveled apartment with his three cats. Suffering from pains in his head and his stomach, he calls for an ambulance and asks his neighbors for advice and pills. They try to help him while ill-disguising their told-you-so disapproval of his drinking and general neglect of his health. Finally the medics arrive, the beginning of a Dantean journey deep into the bowels of a big city medical establishment. As the night wears on, Mr. Lazarescu is shuttled from hospital to hospital, ward to ward, growing ever weaker and wearier in the face of the casual inefficiency of the medical bureaucracy. Told in almost-real time, the sardonic story unfolds at a pace that gives the viewer time to feel everything from irony to pity to anger to frustration to powerlessness to hope, as Mr. Lazarescu awaits his fate. “Grips like an Arthur Miller play. . . It won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year ... and ranks with the films of the Dardennes (LA PROMESSE, THE CHILD) among the great works of cinematic humanism of our time.”—Sight & Sound.

With support from the Portland-Iasi Sister City Association.

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Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, writer and director Cristian Mungiu’s emotionally shattering film manages to be political without a single conventional reference to politics. It is 1987, near the end of the Ceausescu era in Romania, and college roommates Otilia and Gabita live in fear: Gabita is pregnant. Together, the two young women prepare to meet with a cruel abortionist who asks them for more than money in return for his dangerous and illegal procedure. Their story, set against a false and infectious political system, offers an unforgettable lesson on the price repression exacts from the soul.

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Winner of the Jury Prize (Un Certain Regard) and Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Porumboiu’s new film starts out with an absurdly comic police sting operation—one designed to catch a lone high school student in the act of selling drugs. Cristi, the cop assigned to the case, realizes the futility of the mission, but his attempts to convince his bureaucratic superiors are met with contempt, derision, and the reminder that it is not his place to question the letter of the law. But letters and laws are very much on Porumboiu’s mind, as the observational style of the film’s first part gives way to an exhilarating verbal joust between cop and police chief about conscience, personal morality, and the true meaning of the things one sees and how one chooses to describe them. “The truth of my character lies in the small things, in his daily routine and in a certain time of being and reacting.”—Corneliu Porumboiu.

With support from the Romanian Echo.

In this smart, satirical comedy Porumboiu examines the debate about whether or not the revolution that freed Romania from Communist rule actually delivered on its promise. Did a real revolution occur? It has been 16 years since Nicolae Ceausescu was unseated as Romania’s Communist leader, and local television host Jderescu commemorates the anniversary by moderating a discussion among local residents on how the revolution manifested itself in the streets of their small town. His guests include Piscoci, a retired Santa Claus, and Manescu, a professor and a drunkard. While on air, Manescu claims to have taken to the streets in the town’s main square just prior to Ceausescu stepping down from office. Soon the phone lines are lit with callers challenging Manescu’s version of events; all have their ownconflicting memories of that defining moment in their collective history.

12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST was Romania’s submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and the winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.