Murder interrupts an intensely private man’s ordered world in director Radu Muntean’s (
The Paper Will Be Blue, MVFF 2007) gripping drama. On his way out to walk his dog one summer day, Mr. Patrascu (Teodor Corban) overhears his downstairs neighbor, Laura, arguing with a man. When he encounters Valentin (Iulian Postelnicu), another tenant, right outside her door, Patrascu is curious but says nothing. But when he learns Laura has been killed, it becomes harder for Patrascu
—a family man who prizes routine
—to maintain his deeply ingrained reticence. Muntean, a central figure of Romanian New Wave cinema, builds the film’s tension masterfully as Patrascu’s encounters with Valentin cross the threshold of his own neatly ordered apartment, family, and work. This deftly acted drama of a middle-class Romanian family roils with the pressure of its patriarch’s conscience, simmering beneath the surface of his desperate reserve and reluctance to get involved.
Co-presented by
Romanian Film Festival