Playback

I caught this movie at a local film festival. The topic was super intriguing to me personally since I happen to have lived through the times and places referenced in the movie. That being said, I fear that for people without such a framing context the documentary may fall a bit flat.

The editing is the first thing struck me as being fairly amateurish. Quite a few scenes should have been either left on the editing room floor, or at least cut short(er) - Most likely these scenes made it in because there was nothing more compelling to add up to a regular length film...

The character featured in the documentary (he's a real person, I call him "character" because, well, he *is* an unusual character) opens up on camera and gives us a glimpse of his life many decades ago. Except he doesn't seem to have moved away from that time, he is still re-living his glory days. And this documentary provides a good vehicle for him to reminisce and for us (the viewers) to peek into cultural scene in that oppressed era in Romanian history.