The New Year That Never Came

I hope it will be seen by many which dont understand the life under an opressive regime. Very strong acting and well built story presenting , sometimes with excellent humour, the real challenges of the life under Ceausescu's dictatorship.. The movie tells several stories which describe very well the context of the period, how difficult was to keep your own values and how easy was to become paranoid. Low budget film which help the acting performance and story to be the in the center of the project.

Adrian Vancica has an Oscar performance around the Christmas letter of his little son ! I hope it will be Romania's proposal for the Foreign film at Oscars.

By far, one of the greatest Romanian movie from the last years. It has everything: connected stories, dramedy, great acting and overall the disturbing days of Romanian Revolution.

It's funny and at the same time sad, to discover how so many features of us, the Romanians, have their origin in those years and what deep traces those moments of the Revolution have left today. Heroes are among us and we must bring them to light.

It is no coincidence that one of the most common slogans of Romanians is "hope dies last". This film is about hope and about simple Romanians who hope until the last moment.

Thanks to them, today we have freedom and thankfully such wonderful films.

This movie feels like 4 shorts mixed into one long feature, but not in a bad way. It presents 4 different stories during the last days of Ceausescu's regime. The director gracefully navigates through the material and unveils many social mechanisms, fears and motivations. Although there are signs of living in an absurd political regime, permeated by the fear of State Security, and everybody tries not to make the slightest mistake and look good in the eyes of their superiors, nevertheless there is kindness, emotion and empathy between people. It is a movie about how the small folk can swim across the turbulent waters of history, so to say, without losing their hope and sense of humor. Which reminds me: this is really fun to watch, it has many good lines and hilarious situations. Thumbs up for the director, the cast and the whole team for this piece of art!

Is an extraordinary movie that captures the essence of the late 1989, just before the Romanian Revolution. The story follows the lives of people living under Ceausescu's regime, just one day before the events that would change the course of Romania history. The film accurately portrays the tension, fear, and uncertainty that gripped everyone during that time.

I was only 6 years old when the Revolution happened, but many scenes in the movie brought back memories of that era. Although I didn't fully understand everything back then, I remember the dramatic atmosphere and the feeling of unease everywhere around me.

While the beginning may feel a bit slow, which is often the case with Romanian films, the ending is powerful and unforgettable. I can say that the movie conveys a deep and clear message, especially for those who lived through those times.

This film is a triumph of Romanian cinema, showcasing a generation of actors who have reached artistic maturity. The film portrays the mood leading up to the 1989 revolution, but without exaggeration, because reality itself was absurd. The way the film manages to capture both the everyday scenes from before 1989 and the emotional state of the people, along with the verbal patterns used at the time, makes the viewer relive (or experience for the first time) the lives of people in 1989. By the end of the film, no one from the audience could get up from their seat! Moving and uplifting, a true work of art! A big "bravo" to the director, the actors, the cinematography, the script and the soundtrack!