Tatal fantoma

I saw the movie in Chicago and... well... I loved it! It may be the tender, discrete love story, or the cheerful "on the road" adventure. Or the landscape, or the mixture of sadness and joy, I am not sure what it was but I did like it.

The movie has elements of realism and surrealism, minimalism and maximalism (just kidding...) and above all subtle character relations and warm humor. It was refreshing to get a more luminous view of Romania after "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu". This movie is more like "The Life of Mr. Lazarescu".

The acting was good, superb at times (the bus scene, the hotel room scenes, the countryside visits) and rarely sketchy(some City Hall and caravan scenes). Outstanding directing and solid screenplay. Loved the music too.

All in all a very pleasant experience for an open minded viewer. Don't expect a documentary about the hardships of contemporary Romania. You can watch TV for that. Instead, let yourself dream and play along. And towards the end, take a look at your girlfriend...

After reading the two precedent reviews on IMDb and knowing the excellent quality of the latest Romanian cinema wave, we went to this movie with pretty high expectations.

What we saw was, instead, the most grotesque AND boring (quite rare combination) script I could imagine. I'll try to make a summary of what we felt as being deeply wrong.

The plot:

• although a thin idea was recognizable, almost 90 pct of the movie is spent on a strange kind of a introduction, with long silences, melancholic faces and constant repetition of some words like "beautiful", "interesing", "really?". There are some incredibly beautiful movies where silence is an art. Kim Ki Duk's films are jewels in this respect. But not any silence is art. Not any zero is a void...

• this introduction represented mainly a confusing journey in the Romanian countryside, presumably looking for one of the characters - same barren hills, several hotel rooms, a lot of gray and long silences

• the conflict appears towards the middle of the movie and is solved in the last 15 minutes, in a whirlwind of illogic and confusing actions

• the very thread is implausible. One of the main characters, a lady director of the county archives , leaves everything in the office and hurries to accompany the American guy looking for information about his family. She goes stray for several days driving the man in the countryside, mostly gloomy and with a strange attitude, called incessantly on the phone by her boyfriend. We are speaking here about middle age (and above) persons. In the end, still gloomy and with attitude, she has an affair with the American guy

• at a certain moment, someone decided that some surreal touch would be a success, hence some grotesque dreams ans some almost funny in their lack of ...well, everything..foggy scenes with Ucrainean gangsters

• the finale reaches the paroxysm -the lady visits her parents somewhere in the countryside. She introduces the American boyfriend. Her mother, even more sour than herself (for the Romanian connoisseurs - the mother is played by Mariana Mihut, every single tone and gesture a replica of her role made in "Ingropati-ma pe dupa plinta") keeps reproaching the guy corrupting her "girl", presuming he does not intend to marry the lady. After a long and difficult discussion her parents let them go with their blessing in a vintage motorcycle, along with a goose (!), followed by a bunch of running kids appeared out of the blue at the moment of their departure.

Along with already worn out clichés (wolfs are screaming in the night - we are in Transilvanya, right?), the script is full of nondescript allegations. I deeply understand that artistic endeavors often require significant alterations of the real world. Still, such a grotesque distortion we found as thoroughly pointless, vicious even.. Even the common sense was crushed in such a wave of gross innuendos and allegations. There are, of course, plenty of things one can laugh or criticize in Romania, but such almost obscenities are not even a caricature of Romania. Just a gross, incredible, pointless waste of time...

As a Romanian living in Romania and pretty connected to what's happening around us, I did perceive them as simply injurious. Some of them: in Romania the forests have been cut out and nowadays people do not have wood any more. Not even for their coffins. Hence, they are buried in plastic bags. At one point, it is mentioned a situation when middle class people have fun along with friends because one of their little kids is Smoking (!). When the main character inquires a local about good hotels in Suceava, a Romanian town, he is answered that there are no such things in Suceava. Instead, he is left alone to find himself a place to stay. He somehow gets to a place with a slimy guy behind a glass wall protecting the reception. Where on earth did the director find something like that in Romania? Was that in his studio? We are traveling a lot around the country, we have been to Suceava a number of times. Never seen something like that... There are actually 2 hotels in the film with the same creepy kind of reception desk.

Well, these latest details may seem mundane. They only add to the general lack of artistic feeling, even common sense, to the frustration for the waste of time.

All in all, a huge disappointment. Totally different from so many wonderful new Romanian films of the young generation...

it is not exactly the right word. but it is a reasonable one. because it reflects a state. the story of film, itself, is only shadow of a state. the atmosphere.nostalgia, memories, irony about near reality, drops of Chagall or Henri Rousseau, bureaucracy and adventure, good intentions, desire and the spirit of old shtetl. a lost Bucovina. and the meaning of roots. a film like a trip across the old facts, with few drops of Kafka. nothing real surprising. only, maybe, useful. because it is precise picture of a profound need to discover the past, personal past who represents the past of everybody, after a too long period of silence and the fear to be alone in this effort. but the revelation, delicate, subtle, fragile is the perfect answer to all the expectation. so, a beautiful film.

in German," traum", last name of hero, meanings dream. this is one of keys to understand this movie. not very inspired. full of good intentions, sketch of many possibilities,skin of a seductive script it is not a bad film. but, unfortunately, it remains almost a generous promise. the basic idea is interesting. an American writer in search of his origins. but the image of Bukowina, like gray, lost soul land ,is not charming/ correct for a Romanian, even if it is a way to describe Romania by new directors wave . in this case, the sacrifice for noble purpose is fundamental sin of director. because it is part of ordinary cliché. because the events are to many and almost boring. because, after its end, real good point is Marcel Iureș in a strange role. because the message, interesting, smart, is prisoner of another exercise to present a piece from Dracula land. the truth is only convention. but is it right ? because only the South of Bukowina is part of Romania. because this magnificent regions is not collection of ruins. because the story is not so powerful to support every innovation. and the time of rackets / Ukrainian mafia is slice of past. and, in final, because it is a Romanian director work. so, a nice movie. only as intention. or good ingredients for altered salad of a trip, ordinaries cliché, few drops of fantastic in form of dream/ pink fairy tale end, Siret as fragment of Balkan universe, the Jewish line, promising, as smoke ball, and a love story like contortion show.

A must see movie! An extremely interesting story which captures the Romanian reality in a very original, different manner! I was so lucky to get a ticket at the Romanian Film Festival in London last November. I think everyone in the audience - both English and Romanians - loved it.

An extraordinary movie indeed, the best Romanian one I have seen so far, with great acting performances and a great music.

I would highly recommend it to everyone who wants to try a bit of Romanian humor, combined with a great story told by amazing actors.

Everyone should go to see this movie with high expectations... And you will not be disappointed!