Médaille d'honneur

about confusion. about illusions. about the conflict between generations. and, maybe, about the purpose of life after many, too many gray years. a film about happiness. and the small things who create it. a bitter-sweet story. like the life. short, a Romanian story. like many others. Victor Rebengiuc in a remarkable role. and the scene with Ion Iliescu who remains the axis of comments about the political differences between themes. a film about a simple fact who has strange significance for an old man hoping in the second chance. and about the cruel truth. a film about making history. and about the shadows of the past. and nothing else.

Piece of Romanian reality, this movie is only another brick to classical atmosphere. A society without clear rapers, in the sea of memories, fragile, cower, small, behind childish games and bovaric circles. In fact, it is more that. Victor Rebengiuc is subtle and strong in the skin of a character who may be very well, only a shadow. So, the scenes are slices of a way to read the existence. The hope and minor drama are mixed and the taste is , in same time, awful and melancholic. A world in which Don Quijote is mask for every Oblomov. In which the story of Abu -Hassan is present and the joy are only proves of cynic destiny. A film about fake success and empty universes. A description of the importance of image and the drama without bones. A film about pains of East in which the medals, relationships and feelings are accidents.

This is a typical European art movie. Very humane, it presents the drama o f an old man, whose well-intended, but wrong action has lead to the loss of his only son, who emigrated and refuses for more than six years to speak to his father. His wife, with whom he is living, refuses to speak to him as of punishment for his actions. The movie, quite dynamic compared to others of this kind, presents the daily life of a father who's right to speak to his son and to his grandchildren is refused. Things change when the man is awarded a medal of honor, which apparently becomes the main plot of the story. His life changes, as he suddenly receives a great attention from everybody, leading him to the impression that this is the opportunity to impress his son and reconcile. The story is seasoned with some post-communist era humor. Maybe the main attraction of the film is the main actor's acting. The director has managed to cast the perfect man for the role, who's act was just excellent. The movie has a great, touching, ending, which says it all! I find this film worth-seeing, from every point of view: story, directing, acting, etc...

I saw this film on the Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2009 a week ago. The theater was full. We are in the post communist era during the 90s. The hero is an old man that his wife doesn't speak to him for the past years and his son is in Canada and doesn't want to talk to him. The government sends him a letter letting him know that he has been awarded with a medal for his valor during world war II. Its really a very humane movie. Very kind, romantic. It keeps you going for the whole time and you really want to see why his wife is not talking to him, why his son is avoiding to talk to him on the phone and how he is trying to recover the lost time. And the ending is very very good. Lets say that it left me with a smile on my face. Romanian cinema is at its best. A really good, honest and bittersweet cinema. Movies like this one, The Paper will be Blue and The Death of Mr Lazarescu proves that we will have a bright "cinematic future".