Rosebud/UK Premiere
Corneliu Porumboiu/Romania/2009/113 min
Corneliu Porumboiu’s Cannes hit portrays Romania’s authorities as slavish technocrats, inflexibly enslaved to the dictates of the written word, and leaving scant room for the reflection of the individual. This is the story of conscience-stricken cop Cristi (Dragos Bucur), whose reluctance to enforce Romania’s harsh drug laws lands him in trouble. Very slowly (too slowly, many will feel), we see Christi get worn down by a soul-sappingly sluggish procedural system, until finally he loses his individual opinion and succumbs to a mindless acceptance of authority. You might find yourself wondering if there’s not a more artistic way of portraying an insufferably long wait in a waiting room than simply filming an insufferably long wait in a waiting room and showing it uncut, but Porumboiu’s insights and progressive message finally win out; closed language systems may be a way of asserting our individuality, but they can also serve to obliterate it.
Showing @ Cineworld Fri 25 Jun 15:00