Occident

I like this movie, I like its construction, a blurred image that becomes clearer. Visan is like the wine in this movie, it has something inside him magic, a another dimension. More it gets older better he is. Hope so see more other movies of this quality. Congratulations for the "mise en scene". The rest of the actors are good enough as well. The context, if you are not Romanian, harder to be understood and felt like a Romanian could feel. I've spend a nice evening watching this, it is something different from the Hollywood dozen movies that are winning Oscars. It is real art and real art should stay in time, I hope that one day those movies would be easier to be found and seen on numeric format. It deserves an A++ for sure.

Lucian is a 29 year old botanist whose financial security is threatened after his job gets cut. After finding himself evicted from his old apartment, his practical girlfriend is unwilling to accept his proposition to move in with his elderly aunt and himself and starts seeking solace in the company of an older foreigner about to return to France. Mihaela is a 24 year old romantic idealist and aspiring poetess who after being stood up at the altar has to reluctantly accept her willful mother's attempts at finding her a well-off foreigner suitor. "The colonel", a retiring police officer and Mihaela's father is approached by a Romanian expat to assist with breaking the news of the death of one of his friends, all the while trying to avert his daughter's ill-suited wooer.

The three stories in the film, although clearly delineated, are closely intertwined and interdependent, and its strings often blend seamlessly and fluently into one another. Showing signs of Kieslowski (imagery), Tarr (multi-perspective narrative structure) and Wong (theme of failed connections and longing), "Occident" holds a strong grip and deliberate pace on its three plots, gradually revealing more layers of each of its three protagonists, and often amending previously shown events through its crafty fragmented narrative.

Cristian Mungiu's first feature directorial effort paints a bittersweet picture on the transitional period of Romania a decade after the fall of the communist regime, most acutely marked by the large-scale brain-drain occurring after the late 90s recession. Frequently underscored by a popular local hit from the 70s, "Noi in anul 2000" ("We, in the year 2000"), whose youthful, innocently hopeful lyrics create a feeling of melancholy and forlornness when contrasted with the bleakness and ennui of contemporary adulthood in Romania, the film approaches themes of chance, displacement and longing. Allured by the mirage of an idealized West full of opportunity for a better life, the characters in the film are in pursuit of an ever elusive happiness, narrowly missing their chance and failing to reach a meaningful connection.

My friends in Bucharest recommended this film: 'you must see it, it's better than 4-3-2'. 4-3-2 is the short for '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days', the film that made director Cristian Mungiu known in the West and brought him a 'Palme d'Or' in Cannes exactly one year ago. I tend to agree, but I would add 'yes, better, but mostly for Romanian viewers'.

'Occident' deals with what has been in Communist Romania a national obsession and what became today a national and social phenomenon - the aspiration of the young generation to run away from a country where they cannot build a decent life and the mirage of the Occident. The story happens in the year 2000 and is told three times, from three different angles belonging each to a pair of characters, each time changing the perspective and revealing new angles of the story, changing its sense and even its ending. It is a smart story, in a style much more nervous than '4-3-2' which had a linear story telling, with long scenes giving the actors better opportunities for deeper performances.

And yet 'Occident' tells a lot of harsh truths about the Romanian society, about its corruption, emptiness, lack of education. All these will be much better understood by Romanian viewers however. It is also a different time, the characters in 'Occident' may be desperate to run away, but the difference is that they can do it, while '4-3-2' characters have no place to run. This may be one of the reasons that '4-3-2' impressed more viewers out of Romania. What happened in the last years of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu was criminal and may be shocking for less initiated viewers, but is by no means news for most of the Romanians, excepting the very young ones. Ceausescu still sells better even after his death.

This is worth seeing for being from Romania alone, but also it´s a good movie. It takes place in present day Romania and over a few days you follow Nae and Sorina around in everyday events. In a "Short cuts" kind of way you first meet a this couple, and people they encounter and interact with are the people we follow around in the next part. In all you get to see the same events from three different angles which makes an interesting whole. Like in everyday day life, there are both sad and happy occurrences, that shows us that life is not black nor white. It´s partly based on the true stories that the director collected while working as a journalist, and partly based on his own and his friends experiences, which makes this movie very believable.

I really liked this movie, I laughed most part of it, although it isn't a real comedy, but rather a drama. Yet, Ioan Gyuri Pascu makes a really funny role as the typical friend, neighbour and jack of all trades. All in all, the movie's charm is based on the way we get various pieces of information during each of its episodes, and we make up a story of our own, only to discover in the next episode of the film that it wasn't entirely true; most like in "Memento", or "Pulp Fiction", but in a stronger way, as we have here more different stories to follow, mix and clue together (similar to "E pericoloso sporgersi). Each episode shows us the same line of action, but with other details each time. The various pieces of information link one with the other only to show us that we are much too used to drawing conclusions of our own, without waiting to hear the narrator's. If you have the opportunity, go watch the movie. Although it is funnier for romanian people, the more likely to get the jokes and irony regarding everyday's life, it is entertaining as well for foreigners, due to the simple and amusing stories. "Occident" is riding the same wave as "Filantropica"; we hope to see some more good romanian cinema in the future as witty, ironic, sparkling and amusing as those ones.