The lives of six Romanians intersect days before the momentous fall of Communist dictator Ceaușescu, as this ambitious debut feature with a terrific climax shows us what it’s like to live in a totalitarian country, oblivious to the winds of change just around the corner.
Review #2,985
Dir. Bogdan Muresanu
2024 | Romania | Drama, History | 138min | 1.33:1 | Romanian
Not rated – likely to be NC16 for some coarse language and mature themes
Cast: Adrian Văncică, Nicoleta Hâncu, Emilia Dobrin, Iulian Postelnicu, Mihai Călin, Andrei Miercure, Luca Toma
Plot: On the brink of revolution in 1989 Romania, six lives intersect amidst protests and personal struggles, leading to the explosive fall of Ceaușescu and the communist regime.
Awards: Won Orrizonti Award – Best Film & FIPRESCI Prize (Venice)
International Sales: Cercamon
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Romanian History; Communism; Intersecting Lives
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Screener
Spoilers: No
Winner of multiple awards at the Venice Film Festival, this feature debut by Romanian director Bogdan Muresanu should interest cinephiles who are into history and politics as refracted through the lives of ordinary people living in extraordinary times.
We are days away from one of the most momentous events in 20th-century Romania—the fall of Communism and its leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, in 1989.
Muresanu focuses on the lives of six people who will cross paths—some barely, others with blood relations—with each other leading up to that fateful day.
With the film running more than two hours long, that lead-up does take a fair bit of time, which some audiences might find a tad draggy. Perhaps a couple of characters could have been shaved, or have their arcs tightened and be less tenuously connected.
However, if you are somewhat invested in each of their stories, which are marked by escalating predicaments, your patience will be well-rewarded when everything reaches boiling point in the inspired grand finale, accompanied by the progressively louder strains of Ravel’s triumphant ‘Bolero’.
“Maybe we could just wait for one or two days to see what happens.”
The more memorable characters include a director working at the national broadcaster who must find a last-minute acting replacement for a live segment exalting the greatness of Ceaușescu; an aspiring theatre actress who would be the replacement; a factory worker whose young child accidentally mails an incriminating letter; and an old woman who doesn’t want to leave her soon-to-be-demolished apartment.
Most, if not all of them, harbour varying degrees of resentment against Ceaușescu, who was a well-liked leader in the late ‘60s, not just by Romanians but also the West, particularly his outspoken criticism of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
However, his legacy became terribly tarnished as he ruled Romania with a Stalinist fist, culminating in some of the country’s darkest, debt-ridden years in the ‘80s.
While The New Year That Never Came doesn’t tell us much about its tumultuous historical and political context, mainly because its focus is more humanistic than one of pure documentary agitation, through the ‘quilt’ of deftly intercut narrative strands, we do get the chance to see and absorb the big picture—and if you are willing enough, to let the film inspire you to dive a bit deeper into the past.
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 