MovieChat Forums > Dupa dealuri (2012) Discussion > Welcome to MOdern Romania

Welcome to MOdern Romania

posted 11 years ago by lineagemedia
12 replies | jump to latest

This story happend 2-3 years ago, here in Romania.

It s easy to find "good" stories, when you have nothing more to do then watch the NEWS.

Mungiu is not a big director, the movie looks like *beep* the story is well, self written almost.

This country is going to hell, because of the corruption and the educational system beeing almost non existent.

Romania, Hungary, Poland gave the world great minds in the past, well, this is not going to happen again, kids dont have the possibility to learn, are beeing brought up in a sick world, no real interests except party, music and occasional movies.

It s sad what this world has come to, thanks to banks, and this sick social system we are brought up to, where money is made by some at their plain will,while others die of hunger.

Wanna change the world? stop censoring movies that can make a change.

How many here watched cloud atlas? not even nominated for oscars.

hollywood is just another cog wheel in this capitalist trash of the bankers world we live in.

wake up ppl and start watching documentaries, not just stupid argo and zero dark thirty like stupid movies.

there, iv e said it. STUPID movies.

[–] Stokkolm 11 years ago

People like Cristian Mungiu make me proud to be romanian.
People like the starter of this thread make me ashamed.

[–] ChristianWoolf 11 years ago

People like Cristian Mungiu make me proud to be human.
People like the starter of this thread make me ashamed.

Straight Edge is the only way to be free.
Rachel Weisz FOR Catwoman!

[–] thommickel 11 years ago

re:
"People like the starter of this thread make me ashamed."
Can you be more specific? I thought the original poster made some very
good points. He was correct to slam movies like "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty,"
which create outrageous distortions of history. Those movies defend torture
and glamorize the CIA, using a form of sophisticated propaganda that would
do Joseph Goebbels proud.
And as far as this remark the original poster made:
"This country is going to hell, because of the corruption and the educational system being almost non existent."
He was referring to Romania. But he could well be (accurately) referring to modern-day America, as well.

[–] Stokkolm 11 years ago

Well, I'm glad you ask.
Any valid point that the thread starter could make is invalidated by the fact he's a sheep with no personality, he just repeats what he hears from others without thinking it.

In Romania there is a certain amount of hate for Mungiu, people that belong to Transformers & Twilight demographic can't accept that the cinema of their country is represented by some mature art films. Lineagemedia looks like one of them.

[–] vinti2003 11 years ago

People like Cristian Mungiu make me optimistic.
People like the starter of this thread make me pessimistic.

[–] ltarex 11 years ago

Cloud Atlas? That is the best example of a *beep* big bucks Hollywood bluff movie!

"A voice from behind me reminds me. Spread out your wings you are an angel."

[–] Chops-4 11 years ago

Itarex wrote;

"Cloud Atlas? That is the best example of a *beep* big bucks Hollywood bluff movie!"

Web sites should not censor what we write. There should be full expression regardless of whether the language is crude or not. There should be no stupid "beep" in place of whatever word was used. If the reader isn't mature enough to read the expletive then he/she is too immature to be on the site!

I agree with much of the originator's comments. I don't see Argo and Zero Dark as being propaganda, but rather as a perspective. Everything is seen from various perspectives dependent upon the observer.

[–] pjpoconnell 11 years ago

And the perspective of Lineage and Thom is communism.

[–] Earwicker2 11 years ago

I have not, so far as I recall, seen any films from Romania before, and Beyond the Hills was for me a brilliant piece of film-making. The cinematography was extraordinary, as was the acting and the overall structure of the story.

Is it just me, or did anyone else find this partly an echo of Ceaucescu's Romania, with its authoritarian and corrupt version of "socialism" or even "communism"? The Father struck me as a kind of Ceaucescu figure, determined to stamp out all dissent in the most brutal way. Alina, in the monastery, was not mentally ill but a dissenter, a dissident, who refused to obey irrational rules that served no purpose other than to give the Father more power to build up his little empire. In the same way, Ceaucescu had no concern for the Romanian people or society, but was obsessed only with himself and his clique of bureaucrats who stole from the people.

Is Cristian Mungiu hated by the Communist party Old Guard? If the monastery, in the present day, is like a tainted remnant of the old regime, now isolated from modern Romania, then the modern world of capitalism fares no better, with its crumbling public services, the hospital that has to discharge Alina because of overcrowding, the filthy slush violently hitting the windscreen at the end.

[–] oase 11 years ago

I know it's tempting to see metaphors for Ceausescu's regime in the monastery, but I didn't read it that way.

The priest does not start the "treatment" easily. He tries everything else first - to get Alina to the hospital, to her old foster family etc. Only when nothing works, and when pressed by the nuns, he consents grudgingly to "treat". He's acting very responsibly, like a wielder of a great power - as he probably thinks he is. At no point are we led to suspect that he or the nuns are hypocrites - they are all true believers, they act out of compassion and they actualy try to do Alina good.

There is a piece of dialog between him and the Mother which goes something like:
Mother: We cannot just throw her out!
Priest: Of course not!
They are both compassionate and humane, and even though Alina is a problem in many ways (they are poor, she's a non-believer) they decide to do whatever they can to help her.

The way I saw it, the movie is about more than a few bad people destroying a girl's life. I saw the priest and nuns as good people, themselves victims of poverty and stuck in the Middle Ages. It's fascinating how isolated they can remain and how different from the world (even the small-town police look modern in comparison). I believe that this contrast, this anachronism in the original events is what motivated Mungiu to work on this movie.

Full disclosure: I am Romanian, and I found the movie great.

[–] Earwicker2 11 years ago

Thanks for your reply, oase

The priest does not start the "treatment" easily. He tries everything else first - to get Alina to the hospital, to her old foster family etc.

I agree that the Father is reluctant to perform the exorcism - maybe because he's not sure he can do this successfully - but in my interpretation he would rather Alina simply left the monastery, went back to Germany, or to her foster parents, anywhere. She is a threat to the stability of his regime at the monastery, sets a bad example to the nuns (especially her friend), and is an obstacle to his plan to get the monastery accepted into the establishment. Although he doesn't actually throw her out, it seems to me that he is prevented mainly by the Mother, who is indeed humane and points out that they can't just cast Alina out on to the street. It is the way he asserts his authority that is brutal, in my view, and he convinces the nuns (who are mainly kind and humane) that the shackling is necessary. They know no better. They are ordinary mortals, and so is he - both good and bad.

I don't think the film is about just a few bad people destroying a young woman's life. I think it's about a bad system, the Orthodox religion being as bad as the corrupt Communism, and the whole society being poor and without resources under capitalism.

I have no personal axe to grind. It's just how I read the film. And it's one of the best films I have ever seen, brilliant in every way.

[–] ciprianl 8 years ago

I agree with your take on the story, with just a tiny addition. When describing the nuns, you are correct to mention that they are mostly kind and humane. But they are also frighteningly superstitious. They know indeed no better. They are backward and poor. The question is why is that so.