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A witty and succinct set of urban myths from the hardscrabble years of Romanian communism.
This portmanteau contains five stories from the ‘Golden Age' of the Ceausescu regime. Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, MIFF 08) has written them all, though he shares directorial duties with four of his peers.
The tales include absurd preparations for an official visit, the side effects of using livestock as currency, the official doctoring of official photos and amateur forays into black market capitalism.
Some tales are melancholy and others are fast and funny, but the sum is a surprisingly coherent portrait of humanity at an inhumane time.
To recreate the confusion of life under communism, at each screening the producers select five from the total of six tales and show them in a random order.
--- D Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu, Constantin Popescu P Cristian Mungiu, Oleg Mutu S Cristian Mungiu WS Wild Bunch TD 35mm/2009