★ 7 / 10
Typically fine Romanian cinema
sps-70659
I only know Romania from its movies, but how good are they, one of the most assertive and instantly recognisable cinema styles of Europe.This is terrific for a…
I only know Romania from its movies, but how good are they, one of the most assertive and instantly recognisable cinema styles of Europe.This is terrific for a debut feature, assured script, well-cast, beautifully filmed, and getting in and out of the way in a brisk 90 minutes.The director starts cold, in the middle of things, with a proud but seemingly aimless old guy scrabbling around with detritus in a wreck of a house. Once a Romanian movie gets much outside of Bucharest, the village life usually looks rather rustic or pre-modern, not at all spiffy, with the local bar or supermarket often the centre of things, not forgetting the church, school, and local government.Only gradually, and with all the time in the world, are the bits and pieces filled in, the flood, the loss of his wife, his relief accommodation, his land that the local council wants to buy, and most surprising of all, his semi-estranged son who turns up unannounced with a Japanese wife and son.The scenes where father and son get the hang of each other again, and the father comes to know his unexpected grandson and daughter in law, are terse but effective.It would be lame to call the closing scene a happy ending, but there is real growth and real hope, and none of it cheaply earned by this thoughtful and humane director.Curiously, he only appears to have one other feature-length movie, "And They May Still be Alive Today". One to look for on CinePub.
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★ 8 / 10
The classic story of the hardships of the old age that ends with a positive twist.
haricsaba-27690
The movie starts out by portraying the realistic lifestyle of an old man in a classic romanian village who is hit by missfortune when he looses his wife and…
The movie starts out by portraying the realistic lifestyle of an old man in a classic romanian village who is hit by missfortune when he looses his wife and their house. However, he seems like he just accepts this as a reality of life and continues his struggle, he rejects an improvement in his lifestyle when he is offered an important ammount of money for a piece of land which he doesn't make use of anyways.
He seems to have accepted things just the way they are and doesn't want to make drastic changes at this late age, however all this changes once he got to see his grandson, Koji.
His son offers him the posibility of going back to Tokyo with them, however he seems reluctant about that.
Soon after his son leaves with his family he realises that there isn't anything left for him in the village anymore, so he decides to move on with his life, to leave the tragedies behind and open up for the oportunity of a joyful new chapter together with his son, his wife and Kojita.
In other words, it's a movie that starts in a quite pessimistic way but that changes once that the oportunity for better is accepted and acted on.
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