SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain After the fall of communism in Romania, civilians are encouraged to fight and protect a local TV station. One soldier leaves his group to fight with them. Like many Romanian films of late, this film has strong historical and social value to Romania. And like other Romanian films I have seen, not a lot happens. I mean that in the sense of actual events. A lot of this film is set in the back of a truck. Unfortunately, I also found this film to be the least engaging and the least accessible. 12:08 East of Bucharest, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu were all instant classics and in among the best films of the last 10 years. I think the dark and pale cinematography, lead me to become tired and bored of the subject going on. A lot of it is interesting, but the beginning/end didn't carry the emotional impact I have come to expect from the Romanian New Wave.

jm10701 It may take a few lines to get this review going, because this movie has left me speechless. The first word I think of to apply to it is beautiful - not beautiful in any ordinary sense, just exquisitely beautiful movie-making.Paper tells a thoroughly believable story of very ordinary people - people who feel to me like family and friends even though theirs is a nation and a culture and a language about as far from mine as possible - ordinary people just like me, in unbelievably extraordinary and terrifying circumstances. And yet it is a true story, and what is even more amazing: it FEELS true. Watching it is as close to living it, as close to actually myself BEING one of the characters on screen, as I have ever experienced while watching any movie in the 55+ years I have been watching movies.This is a great work of art, and an important aspect of its greatness is its smallness, its intimacy, its consummate accessibility: the way it draws me INTO itself instead of dazzling me with technology or cinematic trickery. It is simple; it is real; it is harrowing; it is transcendent.In just over 91 minutes it opens to me an astonishing place called Romania and an astonishingly courageous and beautiful people called Romanians. And after taking my heart and my mind on a journey like none I have ever experienced before, over the end credits plays one of the most beautiful songs ever written sung by one of the greatest singers who ever lived.I wish I could express more effectively how profoundly I thank God and Radu Muntean for this movie.

Dominic Ambrose This is a film about one of the most iconic and fateful events of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the liberation of Romania in December, 1989. It was the most brutal confrontation of that historical period, and the one that is perhaps least understood.The film opens with a scene of senseless violence, a case of confusion and wild gunfire in the dawn hours of December 23, 1989. This serves as the context and creates the mood of panic, confusion and deadly danger of this film.The film takes us inside an armored militia vehicle as it patrols the streets of Bucharest on the darkest night of revolution. The soldiers are confused, unsure of even the most basic truths about their job: Who are they protecting? What are they defending and who are they fighting? Who are they serving? What country is this? The soldiers have no idea,and they prefer not to think about it.This is the story of revolution. What seems to us such heroic activity guided by higher ideals of liberty and justice, is often unimaginable confusion and wasteful carnage.The performances are very good, the characterizations low keyed and hemmed in, just as these soldiers are hemmed in by the circumstances they find themselves in. The dialog is terse and chattering, in nervous counterpoint to the deadly serious events. But the events are at times mercilessly confusing, and this tends to decrease the impact of some of the key scenes. Just because the characters are confused doesn't mean that the film viewers should be as well! This is especially true at the television station when it is quite difficult to tell which side the soldiers there are defending.In general, the film is quite successful in that it brings the viewer into that time and place, and makes the madness come alive. I think there is room for further development of some of the characters, as there is so much irony in their predicament that is only obliquely alluded to. As for the ending, I was a bit disappointed that the filmmaker chose not to show the final scene that we are left to imagine. It seems like a choice of modesty that does not give full impact to the pathological nature of war.

cix_one Through the lens of actual historical events, the director manages to explore the humanity of each of his major characters, with their ideals, quirks and vulnerabilities. It's the story of a group of people railroaded by history, a story of how things can go terribly wrong despite everyone's efforts to do good.The director has managed to make a fast-paced movie while at the same time taking the time to develop his characters in unexpected directions. Whatever stereotypes you bring to this movie, they'll be challenged by a disarming humanity (and by the construction of the plot). And if you don't have any stereotypes to bring to the movie, it's a timeless lesson on the blind workings of history in times of social unrest.More than anything else I've seen or read on this subject, this movie made me re-live the confusing but adrenaline-laden moments of December 1989 in Bucharest.