dhalmagean Hi,For me again this is more than a movie. Like somebody already said: this is the kind of movie that make you use your brain and connect with your emotions.Romanian movies are usually not EASY !!!! I like this. This time also: at the beginning I was not at all impressed, nothing new, just poverty, corruption, etc... but at the end WOWWW!!! what was this. Did you realized how many subtle things happen in the movie ??? Have you seen them ? Great psychology.Some of them I was enchanted to discover by myself : Doiaru apear like the most corrupted person. With no values, principles. Was it really?Doiaru wanted desperately to get that factory !!! He was even able to bankrupt it and put in danger all the workers. Why ???Remember about his childhood: into the WW2 his parents owned a factory. His family (like everybody) were waiting for the Americans to get saved. When Russians came, his parents were imprisoned because they had a factory. The scene with separation from his parents - last time he saw them - was important. That's why (my opinion) he wanted desperately to get that factory.why Doiaru didn't allow the Americans to leave the village.It was not corruption: he refuse 2000 $/parai to let them leave.And he risk (and loose) his function: chief of the railway station - because he was stubborn: refuse to obey the order of all his superiors. Why ??????The answer was in the most important PHRASE of the movie (my opinion). Everything became clear in my head after hearing this phrase and WOWW - what a movie.The scene when Doiaru and captain (or general) were eating in Doiaru's kitchen. They were eating "sarmale" and Doiaru explain to the captain how they are made. "You mince the meat and you get a paste." - than electricity ïs cut off, - after a break he continues shocking "That's probably what those people in Yugoslavia look like"So Doiaru didn't let the Americans go (with all costs) because he hated them for what they are doing in Yugoslavia (beside the fact that he waited them in vain for a life). And it was really the case: romanian society thought like this.

rbrome This movie is entirely too long. I kept checking the time while watching it. There is - at most - 100 minutes of entertainment in this movie, but the running time is much longer than that.The movie also suffers from multiple-personality disorder. It's a lazy comedy one minute, then a love story, then a touching small-town story the next... then a shocking, violent war drama at other times. Not that these elements can't be combined in one movie, but it needs to fit together and feel like one story, (or be deliberately presented as separate stories.) Instead, everything is just mashed together in weird way where it felt like each scene had a different director in charge. It didn't flow well at all.Half the time I wasn't sure what the "point" of the movie was. At the very end, there is definitely a "point", but then I wasn't really sure how everything led up to that. Perhaps half of the scenes in the movie helped build up to the ending, but the other half didn't seem to fit with that story line at all.There was some good acting, though most of it was not top caliber.At the film festival where I saw it, they billed it as a comedy. It is not. There's a small amount of humor, but it is not a "comedy". Either that, or it's just not very funny. I laughed twice, I think.The story has a lot of potential. It has its moments, but this is just not a great film.

Havgar I have had the chance to watch this movie three times over the past two weeks due to certain circumstances, and even though I imagined what most of the comments here on IMDb would read, I was still surprised to read them as well as to see the rating that this movie has received from the voters.The story of the movie is interesting, and drives the movie forward for some time, which is a definite improvement compared to most other Romanian movies. Sadly, however, the movie does not, in my view at any rate, make as much use of the story as it could have. I realize the movie is unfinished but I somehow doubt that rewriting the entire script was part of the filmmakers' plans.Other positive aspects of the movie are the reasonably good use of flashbacks, the remarkably good sound quality compared to every other Romanian movie ever made, and the acting from one or two of the actors.Where negative aspects are concerned, however, I fear the list is far longer: The screenplay was one of the worst parts of this movie. Some of the dilogue is horribly unrealistic and literally cringeworthy. Someone on the IMDb boards was saying that all the characters are meant to be stereotypes (save Doiaru), which is all fine, but creating a stereotypical character is not incompatible with dialgoue that is not boring, artificial drivel.The acting from everyone involved except Alexandru Margineanu and Ion Sapdaru was atrocious. Armand Assante delivers each sentence to his men as though he was sending them into battle against impossible odds, with the fate of humanity at stake.Overlooking some "plot holes" because it is my understanding this movie is based on true events (though I'm not sure to which extent), I find that the movie becomes very boring, very quickly.The soundtrack was practically inexistent. 8 songs for a 155 minute runtime is pathetic. There was virtually no ambiance music at any time during the movie, it was mostly just street sounds and the sounds made by various objects. Scenes in movies like "No Country For Old Men" are able to utilize this properly and to great effect. This movie, and "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" are not.The hand-held camera "effect" employed but seemingly every Romanian moviemaker is becoming old. I get that you can be artsy, great, but can you be refined? The list could go on but I feel it is unnecessary. I just have to say I was disappointed by this movie, as I had pretty high expectations (no, I was not expecting an Oscar-winning movie, and my expectations were definitely in tune with what Romanian movie-making is capable of).It was very sad to see the movie exploiting a known formula for good reviews and perhaps an award or two - politically involved plot + movie revealing all the negative aspects of Romania + exploiting the political circumstances = movie with great reviews that "tells it like it is".I was very sorry to hear about the death of the director, however I found it very distasteful to inform the audience of his death at the beginning of the movie, in what was clearly an attempt to gain the sympathy of the viewers. If they really wanted to account for the fact that the movie was unfinished, they could have said it at the end, so as not to have people watching the whole movie thinking of how sad it was that he died.Overall, I rate this movie a 5/10, for all the reasons stated above, and find it to be a step up from a lot of other Romanian movies out there (of which I consider Filantropica to be one of the best if not the single best).

Mihai Trica I never wrote any review so far, but after reading the other comments I felt compelled to do it. First of all, you must understand this was a work in progress, the movie remained unfinished. To all the users that made negative comments I say to try not to feel directly involved and to give the movie a objective note. Yes, there are some stereotypes involved and people from the Western countries must realize this is not who we are, neither we, as Romanians, nor other Balkan nations. There were a lot of movies that had similar plots, like "La vita e bella" by Roberto Benigni. This is a movie about war and it must be judged this way. Try to get past the black screens, like some user complained about, not giving the movie a fair interpretation. Things like that MIGHT happen in the future, maybe this movie should be watched by our politicians, as I consider it as a satire. What stroked me the most was the the evolution of Assante's character, beautifully portrayed. Above all, I recommend this movie for those who are fed up with Hollywood's blockbusters and the "they lived happily ever after" movies. The world needs from time to time a pure dose of reality.