Poppy field

Loved the feel of this movie, the acting and the observational directing style. I felt for the lead character's complex life and it has a hopeful message ultimately. This film will travel to many festivals and be a hit I imagine and it is an important film too.

Great portrayal of a day and a night in the life of Cristi, a gendarme of Bucharest. The acting of the main actor Conrad Mericoffer, as well as that of the other policemen is one of truly high quality. On the contrary, except for the scene with the sister, I did not appreciate particularly Radouan Leflahi's (Hadi) performance, although the dialogues were written with accuracy, especially in their attempt to reproduce the silly "empty" talk of two lovers (coming from different countries).

The first part is to be appreciated also for the way in which the contrast between the two different mindsets of the protagonists are described. On the one hand Hadi, who quite naively fails to understand the complexity of the world Cristi lives in, and, on the other hand, Cristi, who shows a maybe too cautious attitude towards life, discretion and circumspection being his mottos.

The second part of the movie is absolutely worth watching: the anxiety Cristi feels while being kept out from the discussion going on outside the film theatre is conveyed through some quite long takes, during which Cristi's emotions hit him like waves, alternatively calming down and taking over again. The - partially unjustified - terror of losing his place in his comfort zone leads Cristi to commit an act of violence, the consequences of which will be dealt with by the fellow gendarmes with typical mafiaesque methods.

Much worthier watching than the (only superficially) German equivalent "Freier Fall".

A difficult topic, the story of a gendarme leading a double life, whose secret is on the verge of being revealed. The background of a real-life incident in which a controversial movie projection was interrupted by a group opposing the subjectmatter of the movie is a pretext, and yet it gets too much time in this movie. This is what leads to an imbalance. There is too much noise, and "noise", and that makes it rather unfair for the psychological drama of the hero to unfold. Apart from that, the characters are very convincing, especially the gendarmes and, of course, the main character. What is nevertheless puzzling is the title. Why is it called "Poppy Field" in the first place?

If you expected a traditional drama from this film, you'll be a little lost at the beginning... I know I was.

Drama tends to be more concise - every scene and line is supposed to contribute to the arc of the story. But 'Poppy Field' is made to look more like a documentary, with rougher scene changes, spontaneous camera walks, and seemingly mundane lines that doesn't necessarily do much to the story... because there's no real story as such.

What the film does is patching and summing up the various moments of Cristi's day. And there we eventually get a sort of a pattern, a bigger picture, and inner turmoil that oozes out from the character against the given situation.

In that regard, it's well done. Actors and scenes are all realistic and believable. But in the end, probably because I haven't shed off my expectation from more traditional drama, I could not help but feel a bit 'so what?'. I just wanted it to be a bit more invested in Cristi as a person and get a little bit more comprehensive view of the LGBTQ situation in Romania... probably the very fact it left me hungry means the film was successful given its stylistic choice.

This is a brave and poignant movie. It is very simple in its pace and setting and could easily be set for a play.

We know from Polish and Georgian movies that it's very complicated to be openly gay in Eastern European countries. Poppy Field is another illustration of this fact.

Cristi is no hero and no victim. As many closeted gay men, he is caught up in his contradictions and spends a lot of time and energy lying to himself and to the others around him. But you can only maintain the façade for so long, and then cracks start to show. The path to authenticity seems like a crucifixion, and the homophobia expressed in the movie is closely associated with Christianism.

My favorite scene is when Cristi is left alone in a red, empty movie theater. We can feel the tempest going on in his skull. His career, his privacy, his life are all at stakes in one day.

A great movie about resilience, bad faith, and sexual minorities.