anul nou care n-a fost / the new year that never came. (w&d bogdan mureșanu)

I imagine if the viewer was more cognisant of the events leading to Ceausescu’s, Mureșanu’s film it might have felt less surprising. We are in Rumania, 1989. The film carefully lays its groundwork as we get to know five different characters whose lives only overlap tangentially. One is an actress, another a  TV director, his son who is a student, a woman in a house due to be demolished and the worker who comes to help her move. Over the course of two hours their stories will criss and cross, as each one struggles with the harsh realities of a socialist state riven with informers and fear. The Securitate lurk at every turn. When the worker finds out that his son has written to Father Christmas with not just his own wishes but wishes for his parents, and that the absurd wish he has made and written down for his dad could potentially lead to him ending up in prison, we get a glimpse into the terrifying comic absurdity of life under Ceausescu.

The film has echoes of PTA’s Magnolia, with its telling use of song, and beautifully crafted script. However, allied to this, is it possesses a fierce political agenda, which leads to a devastating and emotional finale, where fiction and reality collide. Rumania has a great tradition of social realist filmmaking. Anul Nou Care N-A Fost belongs to this tradition, but the scope and ambition of the film adds another dimension. Not knowing where this was headed, the ending came as a truly moving surprise. Of course, had I been more clued in, as mentioned above, the surprise would not have been as powerful. But all the same, the way the director conjures the lives of these ordinary people, fleshing out their dreams and fears, is masterly as step by step the viewer becomes more and more immersed in the story. This is the opposite of filmmaking which seeks to grab the audience by the throat and drag them through the hedges. This is filmmaking as architecture, carefully laying the groundwork, putting down foundations, building brick by brick until the final mighty edifice is revealed.