Set in the 1940s, during the buildup to the Romanian People’s Republic, the film’s intentionally mysterious, nonlinear narrative traces the arc of a romance between two Communist revolutionaries who find their mutual affection at cross-purposes with the interests of “the Party”—a juxtaposition of individual and national identities that Pintilie would revisit throughout his career, and which has proved a dominant subject of interest for Romania’s New Wave directors. —villagevoice.com
Born in 1933 in Southern Bessarabia (part of Ukraine since the 1940s), Lucian Pintilie studied film and theatre in Bucharest. He began his directing career in theatre before turning to film. Although his films were internationally praised—Sunday at Six won The Grand Prize of the International Youth Jury in the 1966 Cannes Festival; Reenactment was presented in the official selection of Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, 1969 Cannes; Ward Six won Un Certain Regard at the 1979 Cannes Festival—Pintilie was in a continuous fight with the Romanian communist authorities. After Reenactment was banned in 1969, and his theatre production of The Inspector was banned in 1972, Pintilie was forbidden to work in theatres and had only two more films produced, the last of which—Carnival Scenes—was also banned for 10 years, to be officially released only in 1991. Pintilie was ultimately pressured by the authorities to leave Romania in 1982. For twenty years he lived and worked in France and the United States… read more
the romanian people republic was not built step by step, during the 40s, it was brought on the soviet occupation tanks after the war, abruptly, i.e. no transition, no preliminary guerilla, and by the hordes of non-romanian bolsheviks that formed the first echelon of communists to build the new order. there was scarce commie underground in my country prior to the INVASION. the onlu honorable manner to read this film
is to see in it the way the network disposes of its own members. even so, communism in romania was instated by experts, not by foolish students messing around. nice film, but don't get overwhelmed by that "revolutionaries" babble - in romania we had a coup d'etat, not a revolution, however hard commie politicians tried to convince the world of the opposite.
