Children of the Revolution: Recent Romanian Shorts November 25, 2007

Including early works by Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu), Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest), and Cătălin Mitulescu (How I Spent the End of the World), this program of short films reveals generations in transition. In Liviu’s Dream, by Porumboiu, a young man contemplates his personal connection to Ceausescu’s antiabortion decree while earning a few lei by hustling stolen wedding dresses. In Puiu’s Cigarettes and Coffee, a successful young man impatiently hears the plaint of his unemployed father; the economy has been reconstructed, but some things never change. Mitulescu’s Traffic depicts a new generation of fatherhood, and how the trappings of modern affluence—cars, cell phones, business meetings—impact human connections. Radu Jude’s The Tube with a Hat traces an absurdist journey through dismal countryside, the lengths to which a father and son must go for television. In Constantin Popescu’s A Lineman’s Cabin, an accident interrupts the monotonous routine of two railway watchmen living in an isolated cabin near the Black Sea.

• Liviu’s Dream (Visul lui Liviu, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2004, 39 mins). Cigarettes and Coffee (Un cartuş de Kent şi un pachet de cafea, Cristi Puiu, 2004, 13 mins). Traffic (Trafic, Cătălin Mitulescu, 2004, 15 mins). The Tube with a Hat (Lampa cu căciulă, Radu Jude, 2006, 23 mins, Beta SP, From Hi Film Productions). A Lineman’s Cabin (Canton, Constantin Popescu, 2005, 30 mins)

• (Total running time: 120 mins, Color, 35mm, From CNC, unless otherwise indicated)

Official Website: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN16695