A series of events unfold like a chain reaction, all stemming from a minor event that brings the film's five characters together. Set in Paris, France, Anne is an actress whose boyfriend Georges photographs the war in Kosovo. Georges' brother, Jean, is looking for the entry code to Georges' apartment. These characters' lives interconnect with a Romanian immigrant and a deaf teacher.
A dramatic retelling of the life of Michel de Nostredame, from his early work as a plague doctor to his time at the court of Catherine de Medici, after he became famed for his prophetic almanacs. Stars Rutger Hauer and Julia Ormond.
Athens 1966. Dimitris, 13, unexpectedly loses his father. Seeing his pampered mother collapse, the boy gets carried away and decides to skip childhood in order to stand by her. When he feels ready, he has to claim his mother back from an up-and-coming star of the military regime. A brutal coming-of-age story, where Dimitris reacts in vengeance, changing thus the course of Greek history...
In this very black comedy about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage, Niki is a former colonel in the Romanian army whose daughter is married to the son of Flo, an aging Bohemian who is full of schemes for the “new” Romania. As the young couple prepares to emigrate to the U.S., Niki is obliged to interact with Flo, whom he finds totally unbearable.
When the Soviet Army marched into Romania in 1944, a part of the Romanian population went “into the mountains” – a diverse assortment of nationalists and fascists, liberals, apolitical farmers and members of the middle-class, who were affected by the Communists’ expropriations. Over a thousand armed resistance groups took refuge in the inaccessible forests of the Carpathian Mountains where they waited in vain for the support of the Western Allies. One of them was led by Ion Gavrilă-Ogoranu, who managed to remain undetected until 1976 when he was arrested. This film depicts the daily existence of this group. It tells the story of a struggle that became an end in itself, as the enemy was constantly in pursuit and arrest meant torture and often liquidation. Hungry and emotionally withdrawn, the group of young men got entangled in a partisan war that could not be won, lost in the landscape of the South Carpathians, accompanied by a vigilant secret police, the Securitate.
A group of young boys, and one girl, find and steal a Jaguar convertible, and decide to drive to the sea. What starts out as a lark deteriorates into a rather grueling journey.
In the Ukrainian steppe, toward the end of World War II, the German and Romanian troops are retreating in the face of the unstoppable Red Army. A Romanian military unit has set up its headquarters in a deserted school. A visit of high-ranking Wehrmacht officers is suddenly announced. Hope is awakened: will they receive new orders? But disappointment comes quickly.
After the war, in Bucharest, a young Romanian poet arrested for having written an article denouncing Stalinist crimes, will save his life by accepting to become a hostage of the regime.
An inexperienced prosecutor becomes involved with a local woman while investigating a miner's death.
Sebastian (Rutger Hauer) sets up an ingenious plan to transform a woman from an unknown to a star by appearing together in the television show "Hidden Camera Live".
It is late in the Ceausescu era in Romania, and Cristina is having a difficult time with her boyfriend. He wants her to have sex with him before he goes off to do his obligatory stint in the army. She wants him to marry her first. She also gets involved with a slightly rebellious actor, a would-be ladies' man. He has some vague plans to defect - could those be the reason he is receiving mysterious phone calls? Or are they the work of his anonymous admirer?
Along the Black Sea coast, we see a man and a woman arguing. They are apparently vacationers. Before long, the man has gotten back into their car and driven off, stranding the woman in a remote area. She hitches a ride with a delivery truck driver. At one of his stops, she gets off his truck to go to get some water. When the driver comes back to his truck and sees her gone, he assumes she has found another ride, and leave her. Once again, she is stranded. This time, the location is a lighthouse. She and the keeper have no recourse but to become acquainted, and for the next few days, that is what they do. Eventually, the man who left her in the lurch comes back to look for her, and finds her at the lighthouse.
In a small village close to the mountains, Mariana and Puiu are a young family with two children: Carmen and Mircea. One morning, the mother and the ten year-old daughter leave for Bucharest, having a hospital as their destination. One doctor alone, Sitaru, believes that Carmen, who can no longer smile, stands any chances at survival. He believes he can perform a miracle and save Carmen's life. Struggling for her daughter, abandoned by almost everybody she trusted, Mariana discovers she is pregnant. After dr. Sitaru operates on the little girl, in a risky manner, Carmen begins to feel increasingly worse. Without any hope, Mariana leaves the hospital and rushes to take Carmen home: while one life ends, another one begins to flicker.
An American couple's battle through bureaucracy to adopt a Romanian child.
Set in the period prior to the revolt in Timisoara in December 1989 and mirroring the events that led to the downfall of the dictator Ceausescu. -- BFI
Mihai and Nidala travel the country putting on shows that convey a simple message: there can be hope if there is love and faith.
A man stands outside an apartment building, lighting a cigarette. He goes inside. As he rings the bell at the 4th floor, a woman answers and lets him in. The alarm rings. The man and woman wake up. He takes out the garbage. She makes breakfast. After breakfast, he packs his suitcase and leaves. He goes outside. He lights a cigarette. After that, he goes inside. He rings the bell at the 8th floor. A woman answers and lets him in. A week later. The alarm rings. The man and woman wake up. He takes out the garbage. She prepares him breakfast. He goes back inside and rings the bell at the 4th floor... Written by Bram Wijngaarden
Oxygen is a free re-enactment of a real case: a man who tried to cross the Danube illegally using an oxygen cylinder, to escape the communist Romania.
