Orientierungslauf

When you're lost in a forest, anything goes, and the moral rules and hierarchy tend to blur a bit.. The director goes from here to a nice parallel with the backstabbing, cut throat, "nice" environment at your office. A group of employees go together on a trip to the surreal mountains of Romania; they "get lost" in the forest and "compete" to find their way home. No surprise here, the leader that gets them out of the forest is not their actual boss..

At first, when I saw this movie in the eighties, I believed it was a very cruel but deserved critique of the romanian communist era of upside-down promotion values at the office or in whatever local industry. After living in the US for a while and traveling a bit around the world, I find it now to be rather the rule around the world than the exception: one more score point for the director Dan Pita, who touches the universal human nature with this movie.

I am not sure if this is available subtitled in a major circulation language, or available at all- which is really a pity. Dan Pita could anytime stand up and measure to a Krysztoff Zanussy or Milosh Forman.