Filantropica

By saying this is the best Romanian movie I don't really say much about it, because there aren't any good Romanian movies, really (with few exceptions). But I can tell you that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen, and I have seen many. Not only it makes you laugh, but it makes you think. A little bit like American Beauty. The story is well put together and the acting quite impressive - gives you a strong real life impression. A school teacher needs money so he can be around the sister of one of his trouble-making students. His book (just released on the market) didn't have any buyers, so he need other funding sources. You'll see what and how. Overall, a movie not to miss.

...and an excellent commentary on the state of society not only in Romania but in the rest of the world. There are some references, small, almost hidden, to the World Bank and the EU, that help you to see the parallels between what's happening to the protagonist on a personal level and what's happening to Romania on a national level.

I've spent a lot of time in Romania over the last few years, and have wanted to tell people I know here in the UK about what it's really like over there - Filantropica gives me a chance to make what I say come to life. The portrayal of the rich, useless 'students', in particular, was so close to reality I just couldn't stop laughing.

....and the dogs at the beginning and the end are just, well, perfect!

Beautiful black humor film, which shows the system in Romania, even still today. The part of teacher Oividiu shows, how even now teachers have to fiddle to enrich their income.The young woman Diana is the personification of Romanian women who love their country and also find ways to add income, but still keep their pride, dignity and identity. They have style and grace. Diana and his wife know how to show this to the viewer.Wonderful acting. The youngsters could be from any place on this earth, they are all the same, react the same,have no identity, therefor it is great to see how Caranfil finds a great way to show the world of nothing to something. He proofs that there is character on both sides. Even the beggars get respect and in a humorous way there is a cooperation. During the film there is a symbiose between the poor and "nouveau rich" who respect and even complement each other.

I had the exquisite privilege to see the film's premiere and since then I've been to see it five more times. It is the best Romanian film ever made. From the script writing (plot) to acting, costumes, camera movements, editing, everything has so high a quality it acquires international value. The disadvantage of it being so Romanian may diminish a lot of its humor for foreign viewers, but there is something universal about humor that makes the bittersweet truth reach the humanity of each member of the audience rather than their nationality. It is a sour sweet satire of the contemporary Romanian society and underworld of which fiction one begins to doubt as credits start rolling.

This is for those who don't know how the director looks like: Nae Caranfil has a cameo as a Karaoke singer. Does the foreign audience applaud when there is a good scene or when the director appears in a cameo, like they did here?

What else? The Romanian film critics had designated "Filantropica" as representative for our country in Best Foreign Picture pre-nominations for the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, they didn't know much about publicity and didn't even come up with all the necessary data for the sites & all, but this does not diminish the film's value and the excuse may be that the event was a first time ever.

In Romania they call it the 'transition' period. Whoever invented this term meant to describe the period between Communist Romania and a normal society, a period where people can recover dignity, learn speaking the truth and trust their human fellows. The issue is that in Romania, as in all other former Communist countries this period was marked by a great amount of dis-illusions, by many broken dreams and destinies as the recovery proved not to be easy neither on the economic not on human plans. The place of human relations was taken by tricks and robbery, the emptiness of the Communist slogans was replaced by the emptiness of the commercial TV, surviving as a human being is tough.

'Filantropica' presents a point of view which may be unknown or hard to catch for many non-Romanian viewers. The Romanian literature and theater has a great satiric tradition, and the founder of absurd comedy theater Eugene Ionesco was of Romanian origin. This is where the villain characters in 'Filantropica' like the one of the master combinator played by Gheorghe DInica come from, although the figure of the little professor of literature dreaming to overcome his miserable condition (through money? through love?) played by Mircea Diaconu is as universal as a Benigni or Woody Allen would have created it.

Some comments consider 'Filantropica' as the best film of the Romanian cinema. I believe that this is an exaggeration, there are certain flaws especially the extended and un-justified use of off-screen voice in the first part of the movie. 'Moartea Domnului Lazarescu' of Cristi Puiu, another movie inspired by the reality of the same period is a better film, with somehow a more optimistic message. Yet this is an important film about this complex period in the history of Romania.