Wednesday, June 22, 2011

California Dreamin' (Nesfârșit) (2007)

Director:   Cristian Nemescu
Writers:    Cristian Nemescu, Tudor Voican, Catherine Linstrum
Language: Romanian and English
A NATO train containing American soldiers transporting military equipment during Kosovo war in 1999 is stopped by a corrupt station master in a village in Romania due to lack of paper work. They are stuck in the village for four days during which the welcoming mayor arranges party for them, the daughter of station master has a fling with the second in command among the american unit while the authorities in Romania stumble along to get the paper work done. In between we are shown flashbacks of station master's childhood at the fag end of the second world war when the villagers are hoping for Americans to arrive but instead the Russians come.

The film is a dark look at how the rest of the world view Americans and the half arsed way in which they deal with things without any regards to the consequences of their action. It also serve as a criticism of Romanian bureaucracy.

The director Cristian Nemescu died tragically in a car accident during the post production and the editing of the film was done after his sad demise. Film is 155 minutes long but it didn't feel that long whilst I watched. The meaning of the Romanian name of the film means Endless. It won the award in the uncertain category at the 2007 Cannes.

Rating: 4.5/5

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