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12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)

Mircea Andreescu , Teodor Corban , Corneliu Porumboiu  |  Unrated |  DVD
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)


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Product Details

  • Actors: Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru, Mirela Cioaba, Luminita Gheorghiu
  • Directors: Corneliu Porumboiu
  • Writers: Corneliu Porumboiu
  • Producers: Corneliu Porumboiu, Daniel Burlac
  • Format: Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: Unrated
  • Studio: Tartan Video
  • DVD Release Date: October 9, 2007
  • Run Time: 89 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000TLONGW
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,986 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "12:08 East of Bucharest" on IMDb

Special Features

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Editorial Reviews

(Black Comedy) 16 years after the Revolution and just days before Christmas, a local television station in Bucharest has invited several guests to share their moments of glory, as they allegedly stormed city hall, chanting "down with Ceasescu!," before Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife fled the presidential palace by helicopter so many years ago. An alcoholic history teacher and a lonely retiree, who moonlights as Santa, are forced to answer questions from dubious viewers who aren't convinced that the Revolution ever took place in their city.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Before the "Revolution" August 17, 2007
Format:DVD
I first saw "12:08 East of Bucharest (A fost sau n-a fost?)" last year at the International Chicago Film Festival, where I absolutely fell in love with it. I thought it was the best film I saw at the festival. Since then I have went on and on about how funny the film was. Today it opened in Chicago and I went to see it again. Some of the magic was gone after a second viewing but that probably has more to do with me then the film.

The film is the directorial debut of Corneliu Porumboiu, whom prior to this had only directed two short films. "12:08 East of Bucharest" comes on the heels of a sudden rush of interest in Romanian cinema. Last year "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" was distributed here, which was one of my favorite films of the year, and this year the winner of the golden palm at the Cannes Film Festival was also a Romanian film entitled "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile)".

This film puts into question whether or not a certain town in Romania took part in the revolution on December 22nd, 1989. A local television show, hosted by Virgil Jderescu (Teodor Corban) is going to celebrate the sixteenth anniversary of that fateful day. On the show will be two guest, each of whom claim to have been there. Tiberiu Manescu (Ion Sapdaru, who appeared in one of Porumboiu's short films, "A Trip to the City" and is also in "The Paper Will Be Blue", also dealing with the Romanian Revolution) is a history teacher, with several debts, and a slight drinking problem. He says he and three other teachers showed up at the town square to protest and rejoice at the decline of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and the end of communism.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars 'The Human Comedy' May 14, 2008
Format:DVD
In America it's frequently a topic of conversation: "Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated?" Most likely for another generation it will be, "Where were you during the events of 9/11?" For Romania's `12:08 East of Bucharest,' television talk show host, Jderescu (Ion Sapdara), asks the big question: "Was there a Revolution?" Referring to the events of Christmas, 1989, when Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was executed, Jderescu questions two guests during a panel discussion, seeking the true nature of those events. His guest experts are Emanoil Piscoci (Mircea Andreescus), the elder, and Professor Tiberia Manescu (Teo Corban), the younger, two dullards who understandably have difficulty making a commitment to their testimony. The core of his interview attempts to show where they were and what part did they play during those life-changing events.

Part human comedy, part gentle satire, the film zeroes in on the lives of these three men with all their mundane wrappings to reveal an amusing and honest portrait of regular people during revolutionary events. What I like about this film is that it uses a feather rather than a mallet to debunk the romantic notions of bravery and folklore to get at the truth of the matter.

Before the interview we find Jderescu, an alcoholic who drives up debt and has a superficial friendship with a Chinese fireworks salesman. Noting that, like Italy, Romania is prone to celebrate Christmas with firecrackers, the film finds opportunities to show annoying pranksters taking advantage of a noisy novelty during a central holiday--like we do for the Fourth of July. The Professor comes across like a paper tiger as he tries to intimidate his students, yet assigns them an elective term topic about The French Revolution.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars CORNELIU PORUMBOIU, OPUS 1 July 1, 2008
Format:DVD
*** 2006. Written and directed by Corneliu Porumboiu. Two prizes in Cannes and a European Film award nomination in the Best Screenplay category. In a small Romanian city, a TV journalist invites two guests for his afternoon talk-show. The debate will be about this unanswered question: was it or wasn't it a revolution in the town sixteen years before, in December 1989 ? Well, I liked the black humor of the film, I liked the Romanian language that is so close to French and Italian, in short I liked the first half of the movie. The second half of 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST which features Virgil Jderescu's TV program is in my opinion of lower quality and fails to create, in the viewer's mind or heart, empathy or simply some interest for the situation or the characters involved. A DVD zone discovery.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 12.08 east of Bucharest October 15, 2007
Format:DVD
The characters are richly portrayed and quite believable as colorful, local personalities. With a very small budget and cast (maybe 5-6 people?) this is independent film making at its best. At a discussion after the American premiere at Telluride, the director said that he was inspired to write 12:08 after witnessing just such a program on a local television station, also years after the fact. Very rewarding and worth investing 90 minutes for.
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Format:DVD
"12:08 East of Bucharest" has potential. A television talk show host arranges for two people to visit his studio and discuss their participation in the Romanian Revolution of 1989. What were they doing during the revolution? But, once started, the show devolves into a discussion of whether either participant was even there, and whether revolutionary activities even happened in their town. The callers to the show are a highlight.

But this is all a bizzare backdrop for examples of a ragged human experience. One guest is a drunken teacher who owes everyone money, insults an Asian shopkeeper regularly (then apologizes and borrows money from him), and is pretty flippant about making sure his students learn anything. Another is a retiree who complains about kids with firecrackers, doubles as the town's Santa (it is set a few days before Christmas), and takes care of a neighbor's kids. And the host is never going to be invited to shine in a Bucharest station!

I found the acting to be quite entertaining, but the slow, slow, slow pace of the story made it difficult to develop any rhythm to the comedy or the drama. In short, the formula for this story just didn't work for me. Pity, I kept wanting the film to success.

In Romanian with clear English subtitles.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Naspa...
This is a sad attempt of a director trying to appear 'deep.' Yeah, seriously I don't know what kind of person enjoys these type of movies. Read more
Published 17 months ago by StBucuresti
1.0 out of 5 stars Yet another pathetic film with East European alcoholics
I have bought a number of Roumanian and Bulgarian films based on quite high scores in the imdb database. What a mistake! Read more
Published 23 months ago by Jackal
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent movie, superbly executed, and fantastic acting!
This movie is amazing. If you liked, or just appreciated, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" then you are going to love this movie. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Deema
3.0 out of 5 stars less often is more
Porumboiu is a poet with an ear for linguistic rhythm, and his actors give Oscar-worth performances. Read more
Published on January 21, 2010 by E. Dana Neacsu
1.0 out of 5 stars Run... don't walk...
I was looking forward to watching this movie because of all the great reviews it received here on Amazon. I have NO idea what these reviewers are smoking!!! Read more
Published on December 27, 2009 by Emmly
4.0 out of 5 stars Rumanian Comedy
This movie is shot fairly traditionally and the main interest is in the scenario and dialogue. The plot is rather simple, with a televised debate on the last day of the Caucescu... Read more
Published on November 24, 2009 by Un francais en angleterre
1.0 out of 5 stars Not in watchable condition!
DVD is defective--stops halfway through, even after cleaning it. It must have been in that condition when sent.
Published on September 14, 2009 by Barbara S. Weitz
4.0 out of 5 stars You say we had a revolution . . .
This dourly amusing political comedy from Romania is a throwback to Soviet bloc films of the 1960s (e.g. Read more
Published on November 22, 2008 by Ronald Scheer
2.0 out of 5 stars The cover of this DVD screamed HILARIOUS!
Well, it lied. I'm not sure what was supposed to be funny. I was neither laughing out loud, happily bemused, or gently tickled. Which of these characters is comic? Read more
Published on October 9, 2008 by J. C Clark
4.0 out of 5 stars Start the Revolution Without Me
"12:08 East of Bucharest" is a droll Romanian comedy that deftly examines how the citizens of that country look back on one of the pivotal events in their nation's history. Read more
Published on August 11, 2008 by Roland E. Zwick
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