METRONOM
Genre
Drama
Running time
103 minutes
Year
2022
Language
Romanian
Subtitle
English and Arabic
Country
Romania and France
Director
Alexandru Belc
Bio
Producer
Cãtãlin Mitulescu, Ruxandra Slotea, Viorel Chesaru, Martine Vidalenc, Emmanuel Quillet
Cast
Mara Bugarin, Serban Lazarovici, Vlad Ivanov, Mihai Călin, Andreea Bibiri, Alina Brezunțeanu, Mara Vicol
Scriptwriter
Alexandru Belc
The year is 1972; Nikolai Ceausescu has ruled Romania with an iron fist for seven years. Politics don't mean much to 17-year-old Ana (Mara Bugarin), who is mainly concerned that the family of the boy she is crushing on is emigrating to Germany in a few days. They meet at a classmate's house party, where the guests listen to the Doors on Radio Free Europe and make plans to resist Communism. Ana is humiliated by the boy and goes for a walk to clear her head. When she returns, the house is full of secret police interrogating the revellers about a letter. Everyone, including Ana, is arrested. Director Alexandru Belc's mesmeric film punches home how terrifying even the unspoken possibility of violence can be. And yet it is apolitical Ana who resists ratting on her friends. Her teenage petulance and romantic drive give her unexpected moral resolve to withstand authority.
Other movies
SABA
Director: Maksud Hossain
Saba, 25, lives in Dhaka with her demanding mother Shirin, a paraplegic whose frustrations and rage often find a target in the daughter who cares for her. When Shirin’s worsening condition requires surgery it falls to Saba to find the money to pay for it. Securing a job at a seedy Shisha bar, Saba befriends the manager Ankur and, for the first time, pictures what a life of her own could look like. Maksud Hossain’s debut feature is a close-up look at a complicated bond between mother and daughter that lurches between love and guilt, co-dependence and the longing for autonomy - but it is also a social drama, detailing the hardships that underlay the riots in Bangladesh earlier this year.
EAST OF NOON
Director: Hala Elkoussy
Stuck in a sandy enclave in the middle of nowhere, aspiring musician Abdo divides his time between digging graves and creating music using household implements. Along with his Nunna, he is plotting his escape to a wider world while scheming to survive the everyday tyranny of the enclave boss, Master Shawky. A story that is very much about the power of story-telling, with some of the flavour of the Arabian Nights, the evocatively titled East of Noon is shot largely in black and white. This surface beauty gives its familiar theme of youthful revolt a surreal, fantastical quality, allowing ideas that would otherwise be taboo to float free.
A SUDDEN CASE OF CHRISTMAS
Director: Peter Chelsom
Ten-year-old Claire loves her family’s annual trip from the US to Italy, where they always spend a snowy Christmas at her beloved grandfather’s hotel in the Dolomite mountains. This year, however, they go in the height of summer; her parents are splitting up and want Lawrence (played by the inimitable Danny de Vito) to explain the situation to her. Claire’s immediate response is to insist that they must have Christmas right away, with all the celebration’s trimmings, even flying in her other set of grandparents for the occasion. She is pinning her hopes on the tradition’s charms to persuade her parents to stay together – a plan that backfires when her grandparents’ marriage also starts to wobble. A charming and entertaining film for all the family to enjoy.
