12.08 East of Bucharest
A second Romanian film for this year. A wry and humourous look at Romania today as in a small town near Bucharest, 
a local radio announcer prepares a programme about the 16th anniversary of the Revolution. Let down by various locals he wishes to interview about their actions on the day, he ends up doing the show with a drunk history teacher whose memories of the day are not shared by various members of the public and by a local father Christmas who would rain on anyone’s parade, the hilarious Mircea Andreescu. The film is more about our perception of the truth and of history and the roles we design for ourselves in all of this. It is also about those that talk of revolution but whose own actions are not congruent with this. There is no doubt that Corneliu Porumboiu’s first feature is a fine work of subtle scripting and attention. I did tend to find it static despite the good dose of humour and would probably have preferred a little more action. There is no denying however that there is a lot of talent in the film and he is a director to watch.
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