"The Way I Spent The End Of The World" *** (out of ****)The title "The Way I Spent The End Of The World" may make you think the film is about nuclear disaster or the apocalypse. But it is not actually about the end of the world. It is about the end of an era. The "world" represented in the film is Ceausecu's regime. The film is about the end of communism in Romania.
Romania is going through an exciting time in cinema. The country has been experiencing a world wide interest thanks to films such as "12:08 East of Bucharest", "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and last year's palme d'or winner at Cannes, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days".
"The Way I Spent The End Of The World (Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii)" is not as confrontational as these other films but it does show us how life was before the end of the regime and the resentment people had towards Ceausecu.
The film follows Eva Matei (Doroteea Petre, in only her second film role) as a high school student who gets expelled after she and her boyfriend, Alex (Ionut Becheru), whose father has strong communist ties, accidentally knock down a statue of Ceausecu. This is treated almost as a crime against the state. All of her fellow students, including Alex, go against her, forcing her to drop out of the young Ceausecu communist league.
When attending a new school, one designed for students who have been expelled from previous schools and have shown disobedience towards the state, she meets Andrei (Cristian Vararu). The two plan to kill Ceausecu. Even her younger brother, Lalalilu (Timotei Duma) along with his friends devise their own plan to kill the dictator.
Clearly a film such as this could never have been made during Ceausecu's regime. Given the end of communism in Romania artist now clearly have more freedom to express ideas and talk about life under communism. The film isn't terribly harsh but does offer subtle ways to show non-Romanians what life was like under the time. In "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" we get a better understanding of the times. This is what stops me from throwing too much praise at the film. It is not the strongest of the films part of Romania's new wave.
The film was directed by Catalin Mitulescu. He has directed a few short films but this is his debut feature lenght film. He clearly has talent and it will be interesting to see if any more of his films find distribution in America. I would be very much interested to see more of his work.
Doroteea Petre is also someone worth pointing out. It is simply amazing how talented many of these young Romanian actresses are. I was so impressed by the simplicity of her performances. She has no film acting experience to speak of, appearing only in the film "Rya" and now this. I said the same thing about to the two performances in "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days". For Petre's performance here she won a acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival back in 2006.
While "The Way I Spent The End Of The World" is not as strong as some of the other Romanian films we have been lucky enough to see here, it is a kinder, gentler film which should not go on without an audience. Even if you only see it for Petre's performance.
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