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Audience Member Cristian Mungiu's debut feature is many things. It's more Tales from the Golden Age than the much revered 4,3,2. It's a discount version of Magnolia, purely Romanian in spirit and, despite its obvious flaws, it's the announcement of the great visual storyteller Mungiu would become. Like any mosaic movie, this one follows the intertwining lives of several people during essential events in their lives. As the title announces, it's supposed to be about the sad and very real phenomenon of Romanian mass immigration to Western Europe that started after the fall of the communist regime and, sadly, it's still going strong. Indeed all main characters go through internal conflicts regarding immigration, but ultimately I couldn't feel the theme actually being explored. Instead, the film really focused on predictable, yet endearing interpersonal relations, which is not bad, just a slightly missed opportunity. As all mosaic movies, it's got recurrent themes and visual motifs, different scenes visited multiple times through the eyes of several characters and so on. As all debut movies, it's got an overly dramatic soundtrack (sometimes unintentionally hilarious), often clumsy editing and not all acting is on point. Most importantly, like any Romanian film, it's got some amazing dark humour (albeit a little on the nose), fairly sharp social commentary and the very Romanian, very strange paradox of directors heavily criticizing and revering their own country in the same film. More so, like many other Romanian pictures, it really shows our unique trait of having as strong a sense of community as is our hopeless individualism. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Super film, va recomand. Ideea regizorala va fi reluata peste 6 ani in Vantage Point din 2008 (aceiasi secventa reluata de mai multe ori din diferite puncte de vedere). Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Eurooppalaista elokuvaa parhaimmillaan. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Same director as 4 months, 3 weeks...format was interesting; three stories about 3 pairs of people; it turns out that the stories are interconnected; a little Rashmoonish in that same events are seen and interpreted differently based on points of view; the one difference is that the stories are kind of simultaneous but also each successive story furthers both the understanding and events of the previous one Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Ha, it's like the Romanian "Pulp Fiction", only it's all out comedy, and brilliantly hilarious at that. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Totally hilarious! Don’t waste your time if you’re a very politically correct person. The humour in here is anything but! Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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