Anul Nou care n-a fost

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.

The 2024 Venice Film Festival crowned New Year That Never Came as its Best Film, and for good reason. Directed by a visionary new talent , this movie is a masterful meditation on loss, memory, and the surreal passage of time. With its striking visuals and emotionally charged performances, it captivated audiences, offering a haunting and unforgettable cinematic experience.

At its core, *New Year That Never Came* weaves together a narrative that explores the human tendency to cling to hopes for the future, even when the present feels stagnant. The plot revolves around a community preparing for a much-anticipated New Year's celebration that, mysteriously, never arrives. Days stretch endlessly, and time appears frozen, forcing the characters to confront their deepest desires, regrets, and fears. The film's pacing, often slow and deliberate, mirrors the liminal space the characters inhabit-a space between the hope for renewal and the reality of an endless today.

Visually, the film is a feast. The cinematography, drenched in cold blues and muted hues, paints a world on the brink of despair but still clinging to the warmth of hope. The town, blanketed in unseasonal snow and captured with a stillness that echoes the characters' emotional paralysis, becomes a symbol for dreams deferred. Director , through innovative shot composition and symbolic use of recurring imagery-clocks, fireworks that never explode-creates a disorienting yet mesmerizing atmosphere.

The performances are equally powerful. The cast, delivers nuanced portrayals of people grappling with internal and external inertia. It gives a particularly heartbreaking performance as , whose journey of self-discovery amid the uncertainty resonates deeply. Every character, however minor, feels fully realized, adding to the movie's rich emotional texture.

At its heart, reflects on the nature of time, anticipation, and the emotional weight of deferred moments. The New Year, traditionally a time of renewal, becomes a metaphor for a future that is always just out of reach. It's a profound exploration of how people cope with unfulfilled expectations-whether through denial, anger, or acceptance-and how, sometimes, the future we pin our hopes on may never come.

One of the film's greatest strengths is its refusal to provide easy answers. The audience is left questioning whether the lack of a New Year is a supernatural occurrence, a metaphor for societal stagnation, or the manifestation of the characters' collective psychological states. This ambiguity, rather than.

My father tried two times to cross the border (with his friend) during communism, the first time being caught at the border with Yugoslavia and 2nd time being caught in Greece, sent back to Romania, and beaten and interrogated exactly like in the movie. Yesterday was a very special night since I assisted at a very special screening together with my father.

In the past years, I was disgusted with any subject related to communism since I hated so much the consequences supported by so many generations of Romanians. We still suffer because of this past dictator, even the ones born after the revolution.

Now I see the importance of going back 'there' to remind us not to repeat the same mistakes.

Very emotional film for the entire sold-out cinema hall... One of the best movies ever made after the Romanian Revolution (1989).

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!

The movie follows a few storylines happening in December 1989, just before the revolution started in Bucharest. Apparently, the storylines have nothing in common, except the fear and hate against the communist regime and the movie might seems dull, but once the storylines starts to connect the movie transforms in a masterpiece. The atmosphere of the movie teleports you back in those days, and for the ones who lived the days it creates mixed feelings of nostalgia, sadness and a strange feeling of happiness (maybe because we've remembered the family, the friends and the bright side of our childhood). The way is being produced, reminds a little bit of Crash (2004). Kudos to all the actors for a great performance and thank you, Bogdan Muresan, for a great movie!