Product Details

• Actors: Maia Morgenstern, Razvan Vasilescu, Victor Rebengiuc, Dorel Visan, Ion Pavlescu
• Directors: Lucian Pintilie
• Writers: Lucian Pintilie, Ion Baiesu
• Producers: Lucian Pintilie, Constantin Popescu, Eliane Stutterheim, Sylvain Bursztejn
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303077803
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,606 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Lively, difficult stuff from the Romanian director Lucian Pintilie: a tale of private survival at the ragged end of the Ceausecu years. Maia Morgenstern plays Nela, the daughter of a dead party official, who pushes off to a provincial town and gets into all kinds of trouble; she also takes up with the local doctor (Razvan Vasilescu), although in this movie even love looks like trouble. There are moments when Pintilie starts to preach, but they soon pass, and this maddening world resumes its pressure on his imagination. He has the courage of his own comedy, with an eye forever caught by off-beat details, especially military and medical; the very look of the movie, its casual brand of intensity, seems to buck the system. Bits of it barely make sense, but the characters don't mind, so why should you? In Romanian. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars disturbing but riveting, August 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Oak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a Romanian who grew up in Canada, when I saw this movie I was shocked and challenged. I knew that this kind of thing happened, even to my own family, but to see it represented in such a dark and realistic fashion made it even more real to me. The movie runs the full range of emotions, from black humour to horror to dispair. Everyone who has gone through this should see it and everyone who hasn't gone through this should see it too, to appreciate our freedom.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life In a Dictatorship, November 25, 2002

By 

Ken Bailey "mikoyan" (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A friend of mine recommended this movie to me because he came to the United States from Romania. He said it was a pretty decent representation of life in Romania before the fall of Caucescu. I really enjoyed this movie even though I really couldn't relate to aspects of it as an American and I hope I don't ever have to relate to those. The acting was excellent and so was some of the cinematography. Especially some of the scenes of the run down areas of Romania.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More movies by Lucian Pintile, April 11, 2002

By 

Costel Darie (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oak [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is amazing. Lucian Pintile is a genuis. You need to sell more movies made by Lucian Pintile.