12:08 am Beyond Bucharest

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title 12:08 am Beyond Bucharest
Original title A fost sau na fost?
Country of production Romania
original language Romanian
Publishing year 2006
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Corneliu Porumboiu
script Corneliu Porumboiu
production Corneliu Porumboiu
music Fanfara Rotaria
camera Marius Panduru
cut Roxana Szel
occupation

12:08 PM Beyond Bucharest is a Romanian comedy film from 2006. The director is Corneliu Porumboiu , who also wrote the screenplay and was the producer.

action

To mark the 16th anniversary of the Romanian Revolution , the local television station in the small town of Vaslui, 300 km northeast of Bucharest , plans to hold a live discussion on December 22, 2005. The topic of the program will be the contributions of the inhabitants of the town to the revolution 16 years ago, specifically the question of whether there was a protest against the government in Vaslui on December 22, 1989 before or after 12:08 pm - at 12:08 dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu fled with them a helicopter from Bucharest, clearing the way for the introduction of democracy. After several potential interviewees have canceled, the producer and presenter Virgil Jderescu has only two participants left: the history teacher Tiberiu Manescu, who is inclined to drink, and the lonely pensioner Emanoil Piscoci.

All three participants in the show are overwhelmed with the situation. It also turns out that her memories may be deceptive. Manescu tries to portray himself as a revolutionary and claims to have demonstrated against the government with others in a central square in the city the previous evening. Viewers can call the studio during the broadcast and one caller claims to have only seen a group of drunkards at the location in question at the time in question. The participants in the show and the callers each present their own, individual memories of the day in question, and what actually happened in Vaslui on December 22, 1989, is ultimately up to the opinion of the viewer.

History of origin

Director Porumboiu was inspired by a TV show from 2001 in which three people discussed what happened at 12:08 pm on December 22, 1989. His main motive was to use the plurality of memories to show that “historical reality does not exist”.

The film was shot in Vaslui and Bucharest. The city of Vaslui, set in the 12:08 am Beyond Bucharest , is the hometown of Porumboiu. During filming, the director regularly rewrote the script at night to better integrate the acting of the three main actors. The music for the film comes from the brass band Fanfara Rotaria from Vaslui. The Romanian original title A fost sau na fost? means in German about Was it or wasn't it? and relates to the question of whether the city of Vaslui was involved in the 1989 Romanian Revolution.

It premiered at 12:08 am Beyond Bucharest at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006. The film was shown at various other festivals until its Romanian theatrical release in September of the same year.

date festival place country
May 24, 2006 Cannes International Film Festival Cannes France
June 2, 2006 Transilvania International Film Festival Cluj Romania
July 2, 2006 La Rochelle Film Festival La Rochelle France
4th July 2006 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Carlsbad Czech Republic
September 1, 2006 Telluride Film Festival Telluride United States
September 8, 2006 Toronto International Film Festival Toronto Canada
September 16, 2006 Helsinki International Film Festival Helsinki Finland
17th September 2006 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival Antalya Turkey
September 22, 2006 Copenhagen International Film Festival Copenhagen Denmark
September 29, 2006 Reykjavik International Film Festival Reykjavik Iceland

The cinema premiere took place on September 29, 2006 in Romania. With a budget of 200,000 euros, the film grossed almost 500,000 euros internationally.

reception

Ratings
Austin Chronicle 3.5 / 5
Time out 5/5
Meta-ratings
Rotten tomatoes 96%

The Rotten Tomatoes review database aggregates 47 reviews to a mean of 96%. The ARD saw "a successful farce about the unperformed coming to terms with the past, the identity problems and also the scars not only of this small town, but of an entire nation". The Austin Chronicle described the film as a "well-acted comedy directed with a sure hand" and drew comparisons to Jim Jarmusch's early work in terms of long, calm camera positions . The American Chicago Reader noted a dry, minimalist sense of humor. The film tends to view everything and everyone with a healthy dose of skepticism. Cineuropa described the film as "one of the most original and intelligent comedies of recent years" and an "ironic and biting portrait of today's Romania". The British Evening Standard noted that Porumboius' cinematic view of his small hometown was "ironic, but not without sympathy". His film is a "funny, eccentric and wonderful testimony to the selectivity and hypocrisy of memories". The San Francisco Chronicle ruled that 12:08 Beyond Bucharest was a clever, winking film that initially seemed simple, but had subtlety and brilliant complexity. The international magazine Time Out saw reserved, dry humor. The film begins slowly and with long camera angles, but it really picks up speed from the beginning of the television broadcast, which was apparently recorded by the “most incompetent cameraman in the world”.

In 2006, the film won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival for best debut film . Further awards were four of the five most important prizes (best film, best director, best screenplay, best male leading actor) at the Premiile Gopo (Romania's national film prize) 2007, the “Golden Swan” for best film at the Copenhagen International Film Festival and the Film award of the Transilvania International Film Festival .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Cineuropa.org: Corneliu Porumboiu • Director. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b ChicagoReader.com: 12:08 pm East of Bucharest. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  3. ↑ IMDB.com: Box Office. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b AustinChronicle.com: 12:08 East of Bucharest. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b TimeOut.com: 12:08 East of Bucharest. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b 12:08 Beyond Bucharest at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  7. ↑ ARD.de: 12:08 am Beyond Bucharest. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  8. ^ Standard.co.uk: Small-town trial by Romanian television. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ SFGate.com: 12:08 PM East of Bucharest. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .
  10. ↑ PremiileGopo.ro: 2007 Gopo Awards. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .