In a devastating story rife with visual metaphors, Romanian director Mircea Daneliuc traces the slow mental disintegration of a confirmed gambler, using his disorder as an allusion to a greater national and social disorder. Set in the 1930s, the middle-class gambler meets an elderly man who seems to bring him good luck at the gaming tables. Rather than treasure his friendship and the good fortune it brings, the gambler takes advantage of his friend, and by his actions drives the man to suicide. Unable to reconcile his own mental demons, the gambler wanders through the house of his dead friend, and his experiences there only serve to unsettle his mind more and more and more. In the last reels of the film, the fantasies of the hero’s deranged mind take over.
Tag: romania
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Bloodlust: Subspecies III
Still in the thrall of the evil vampire Radu, Michelle yearns to be taught the skills of the vampire. Meanwhile, her sister Becky tries to free her from his evil clutches, and this time, she’s brought some help.
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Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula
Meet the man behind the legend in this true story of Vlad the Impaler, whose vicious and cruel reputation as a bloodthirsty warlord became the basis for the myth of Dracula.
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The Crazy Stranger
A man is looking for a singer he had heard on cassette. He finds much more.
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My Giant
Sammy, an agitated agent lost in the forest of the modern world, happens upon a gentle giant with a tall talent for friendship named Max.
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Children of the Decree
Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women, was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children. All forms of contraception were totally banned. The New Romanian Man was born. By 1969, the country had a million babies more than the previous average. Romanian society was rapidly changing. By using very interesting archival footage and excerpts from old fiction films and by interviewing famous personalities from that time – gynecologists or mothers who were part of the new society – the director revives this period of tremendous oppression of personal freedom. Many deaths were caused by the mere fact that women, including wives of secret Romanian agents, famous TV presenters, and actresses, had to undergo illegal abortions. Many women were jailed for having them.
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Several Conversations About a Very Tall Girl
Two girls begin to chat about another girl, a former lover of both. As they grow closer, the gap between them widens, as one them is looking for answers and love while safely closeted. A try-out for love confined within suffocating prejudices, in today’s Romania.
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You Are So Beautiful
Aymé Pigrenet, a recently widowed farmer, is eager to find a new wife to help him run his farm. Desperate, he seeks the aid of a local matchmaker who suggest that he go to Romania to find a new wife. There he meets Elena.
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The Prophecy: Forsaken
In Bucharest, Allison is protecting the mysterious bible, “The Prophet Lexicon”, where the last chapter about the apocalypse, called Revelations, discloses the name of the Antichrist in its last page. Meanwhile, the evil and jealous leader of the renegade angels Thrones, Stark, forces the hit-man Dylan to kill Allison to get the information about the Antichrist, but Dylan mysteriously feels attracted by the woman, protecting her against the Thrones. Allison seeks John Reigart for help, but Satan tell her that he is interested in the apocalypse to gather millions of souls to Hell. Alone and betrayed, Allison discloses the truth about her origins, while protecting the Lexicon.
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The Cave
After a group of biologists discovers a huge network of unexplored caves in Romania and, believing it to be an undisturbed eco-system that has produced a new species, they hire the best American team of underwater cave explorers in the world. While exploring deeper into the underwater caves, a rockslide blocks their exit, and they soon discover a larger carnivorous creature has added them to its food chain.