The movie describes the weird, unspoken, outrageously misbehaved love of an old gypsy man for the newborn girl of his teenage daughter. Because love is when you would do anything for somebody. Pardica - stunningly acted on instinct by Sorin Mihai - drives long hours to face his estranged older daughter and her aggressive husband. Pardica drags Giuberina to the hospital to sign papers that make no sense to him. Along the way he curses and pushes and shovels everybody and everything out of love for a minuscule body of flesh and blood, a long line of his flesh and his blood. What is written in the meaningless documents - meaningless to the Pardicas of the world - pales in comparison with what remains unwritten: his love for "my beauty."
Rarely a short impacts the audience with such power. Alina Serban brings determination, sensibility and painful quietness to her character, Giuberina. In a perfectly orchestrated contrast, Claudia Silisteanu delivers an apparently cold Doctor caught between compassion and the rule of law. But as some say, there are no rules in love and war and the excellent screenplay - by the same Claudia Silisteanu - makes us take an unexpected side. Beautiful cinematography and careful editing add to this love story that can be located anywhere in the world, even right there, in "that neighborhood" of your city.
2 Reviews
Balance of time a bit out, but it is genuine and with heart and energy
bob the moo22 September 2019
Bureaucracy threatens a family when they cannot get their granddaughter out of hospital due to lack of proof of being her guardian, even though they raised her like their own when their own daughter (her mother) left her and moved away.
The one-liner sounds dry and messy, but actually the film has much more energy and emotion than I expected. Mostly it is driven by the energy and dramatics of the family, with the raised voices, gestures, and fast pace of talking. They are not all nice characters but they engage and the film gives them all space to be more than one thing. I liked the way that I managed to dislike and feel for several of the characters, mostly at the same time. The film is about 20 minutes, which in itself is not an issue but I did think it spent a bit too much on the fast-talking family drama, and this meant there was less space for the rawer, more emotional content.
That said, the performances make the most of the time for whatever the film is doing. I read they were not professional actors, but I find it hard to believe because they are all very strong throughout. Whether the frustrated animated yelling, or the soul-hurting pain of choices, it all felt real and engaging. In the end I did wish it had more of the pain and less of the exaggerated fighting, but it worked nonetheless, and a film worth seeing and not letting the subtitles or subject put you off.
The one-liner sounds dry and messy, but actually the film has much more energy and emotion than I expected. Mostly it is driven by the energy and dramatics of the family, with the raised voices, gestures, and fast pace of talking. They are not all nice characters but they engage and the film gives them all space to be more than one thing. I liked the way that I managed to dislike and feel for several of the characters, mostly at the same time. The film is about 20 minutes, which in itself is not an issue but I did think it spent a bit too much on the fast-talking family drama, and this meant there was less space for the rawer, more emotional content.
That said, the performances make the most of the time for whatever the film is doing. I read they were not professional actors, but I find it hard to believe because they are all very strong throughout. Whether the frustrated animated yelling, or the soul-hurting pain of choices, it all felt real and engaging. In the end I did wish it had more of the pain and less of the exaggerated fighting, but it worked nonetheless, and a film worth seeing and not letting the subtitles or subject put you off.
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