Figurantii

This is not a movie. This is propaganda. The bourgeois are all filth and labor is the only salvation. Communist ideas invade the movie through color, sound and costumes. You see communist red invading every space. Almost every character, except the former aristocracy are dressed like working people which look decent in comparison to how the former aristocracy is depicted. Bourgeois look like clowns, dressed in bright colors and holding secret meetings in tombs (Haha, get it!). Drinking tea and coffee is depicted as a sin, these being considered drinks for the aristocrats. These people are only fit to be extras in a movie which condemns them. They don't fit in the new progressive communist society.

The action takes place in the 1950's somewhere in Romania, and by somewhere I mean anywhere. The main character is a former bourgeois girl becoming a woman and trying to fit in this new society. From the start we realize she's attracted by communist idealism and rejects her heritage. She doesn't feel comfortable though about her past. In the end she manages to reconcile with it when she finds out the truth about her mother.

The movie benefits from some good acting. Too bad there isn't much character development. Except the main character, which symbolizes the paradigm shift that the communist party wanted to see in the Romanian society at the time, all others are caricatures. Nevertheless, well played caricatures.

If you feel nostalgic about the era then maybe this is the movie for you. But you can't shake the feeling of forced propaganda. You can almost see the communist activist pulling strings above the sets of the movie.