Romanian film review – This Was 2022

It is the end of the year, and also time for best-of lists again. Instead of going through all releases and looking at all categories and so on, this time I decided to feature all the films that stayed with me off the top of my head, for various reasons that surprised and moved me. It was always the smaller parts than the overall film.

What made this freely put-together selection easy and most of all short was the simple fact that 2022 was less exciting in terms of releases compared to 2021. I wonder if this is also a natural effect of the pandemic and the films (or lack of them) shot during the past two years.

The one I had most fun watching was definitely #dogpoopgirl, a wild ride of a debut for actor Andrei Huțuleac. Based on a true case, it features an average bank employee who adopts a dog only for it to throw up on the subway on their way home. From now on, her life will unravel in the most nightmarish ways. A pitch-black, sharp comedy of errors, it got me screaming in delight and horror. #dogpoopgirl is streaming on HBO Max.

I was surprised to laugh so hard at this one, just as I was pleasantly surprised by two other films I knew very little before seeing, or who have been released with less fanfare than others. Emanuel Pârvu’s Mikado/ Maroccois a taut, clever drama about a small act of kindness that leads to a tragedy of classic proportions. The ending is a bit much, but the intensity of everything leading up to it makes this the best Romanian thriller of the year for me. Mikado has been screened sporadically in December in cinemas, so watch out for further dates.

I did not expect Om Căine/ Man and Dog to move me that much at the end. Well done, Ștefan Constantinescu, for not going the expected way. A pandemic film both in theme and its shooting period, this is the story of a doctor working abroad who returns to his hometown because he suspects his wife of being unfaithful.

Alexandru Belc's Metronom did have one of the splashier releases, also having arrived on local screens after a best-director award at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in the 1970s, its protagonist, a highschooler in love, is confronted with the insidious Securitate (state secret police) after attending a gathering with her friends who write a letter to the (real-life) legendary host of the eponymous, by-then-banned music radio show. Metronom’s beating heart is the extended party scene, set against The Doors’ “Light My Fire”, one of the most beautiful scenes ever in a Romanian film (the video below is a good teaser for its exuberance). Metronom is currently still