Padurea de fagi

This is a movie I discovered only recently, when it was broadcast on TV. It is a very well-written story of a group of around 10 women working as telephone operators taken into a forest near Bucharest around the end of WWII, to help with the military communication. It was written by Francisc Munteanu, one of the most professional screenwriters Romania ever had. The women, beautifully portrayed by the well-cast actresses, were each nicely individualised, thus the story, in spite of its powerful pro-communist propaganda, is still vivid and human today. The main asset of the movie is probably the film's image, signed by the newcomer Cristian Comeaga, now also a respected producer.

Thirty women telegraph operators are sent during the summer of 1944 in a camp somewhere near Bucharest in a beech forest for training. The purpose of the camp is actually to spy on the German camp nearby. Each of the women is particularized with their own story and personality, focusing on three main characters. The gleefully atmosphere of the camp is disturbed on the 23rd of august, when Romania changes sides and allies, turning weapons against the Germans. Most interesting are the stories of the young women, especially Ana's drama. I must say that I was not fairly impressed by the directing, but the film is worth seeing mostly because it shows an authentic image of the epoch, and because of the psychological insights on the characters describing women's fight for survival with no feminist intent whatsoever. Nevertheless, one can easily notice the feminine touch of the director in the long descriptive frames.