Romania 2009
Comedy/Short Films 2'35 min
Directors: Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer,
Constantin Popescu
Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Ion Sapdaru, Viorel Comanici
Tales from the Golden Age consists of six short films from the same historical period and following the same narrative pattern.
The screenplays have, as starting point, Romanian urban legends from the late communist period – popular and humoresque stories believed to be true. Comic, bizarre, surprising, these myths drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime. Humour is what kept Romanians alive, and Tales from the Golden Age aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a nation having to face every day the twisted logic of a dictatorship.
The last 15 years of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime were the worst in Romania’s history. Nonetheless, the propaganda machine of that time referred without fail to that period as The Golden Age.
The shorts were screened at the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and are meant to be watched in no particular order.
Book tickets for this screening.
Screening at Loop Project Space & Bar, 23 Meyers Pl, Melbourne