Endstation Paradies

gray, cruel, cynical, poetic, dramatic, touching, maybe strange. the film of a state of soul. film of a profound crisis. and image of hope's lost. out of brutal language remains its special beauty. few magnificent scenes, few crazy scenes. and the splendid acting - Gheorghe Visu does one of his extraordinary roles. high result of a rare artistic team, work of a great director, it impose an admirable actor - Costel Cascaval who use , with force and precision, each trait of his character. a film about Romanian reality, a cry, it is a real good film. and after its end, that fact is only important. because the tension, the stories, the search of sense are only tools for an impressive movie. must see it ! and than it could become a kind of experience. not only an artistic one.

A story of several events all related to a crazy guy wanting a girl no matter what. Numerous adventures more or less deadly along the path to paradise.

Terminus Paradis in one word: a mirror of real life, with shocking ideas, shocking words and images. Under this, a simple, but exhaustive analysis of post-communist Romanian life. The simple action, built on an American-like image, shows the pathological typology of the new "capitalist" mentality, adapted from the elder East-European one. The reactions of post-communist changes are different. Violence, on one side (like Cafanu, the hero of the story) and passivity, on the other side (like his colonel) are just a flash aimed on the Romanian mind.

Terminus Paradis is the movie that impressed me the most until now. It's about life and how to make a living. It's about the impossibility to make a family in Romania, because of hard living. The language is exactly the language of every Romanian: dirty, mean, sick, intrigant, etc. I personally know Costel Cascaval (Mitu in the movie) and I've discussed with him about this movie. Again I'm telling you: it's not a movie, it's a FACT, it's real life! And the actors, they're not acting, they just play their roles. Nothing is fake! Everything is reality! In the army service everything happens like you saw in the movie. In Romania, everything goes like it was presented there!

a cry. or , maybe, a parable. strange at first sigh. and painful confession about reality, dream, looking for happiness, definition of life. to say that it is a film by Lucian Pintilie could be enough. but not only the dark story, with a memorable last scene, not the profound message who can be understand only by East European public in its essential dimension are important but the fascinate performances of Dorina Chiriac and Costel Cașcaval. a film of fury and escapes, revenge against yourself and run to death, it is perfect example of beauty of mud and force of small people. aphorisms and crumbs from other films by Pintilie. and step of a personal fight against the images of every day reality of one of the most important Romanian directors.