SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

nemesis I consider this one of the best Romanian movies ever made. Black humor at its best. It captures an image of a society in transition, where traditional roles and values have been eroded. The boundaries between teacher, student and criminal have become blurred. Each character is trying to find his identity in a world mired in poverty, corruption and decay.I find the stereotypes spot-on, the acting excellent, the characters very believable and the environments constructed in great detail (as an example Ovidiu's father sits on a chair surrounded by huge piles of old newspapers, making it look as if he's on a throne of sorts). The plot is intriguing and original and the acting very convincing.The only drawback is that much of the charm comes from elements which are hardly perceivable to foreign viewers. (either language or cultural) You have to have lived in Romania through the 90's / early 2000's to fully appreciate it. With this in mind I highly recommend it!

melle-smit Beautiful black humor film, which shows the system in Romania, even still today. The part of teacher Oividiu shows, how even now teachers have to fiddle to enrich their income.The young woman Diana is the personification of Romanian women who love their country and also find ways to add income, but still keep their pride, dignity and identity. They have style and grace. Diana and his wife know how to show this to the viewer.Wonderful acting. The youngsters could be from any place on this earth, they are all the same, react the same,have no identity, therefor it is great to see how Caranfil finds a great way to show the world of nothing to something. He proofs that there is character on both sides. Even the beggars get respect and in a humorous way there is a cooperation. During the film there is a symbiose between the poor and "nouveau rich" who respect and even complement each other.

Alice_Fluture I had the exquisite privilege to see the film's premiere and since then I've been to see it five more times. It is the best Romanian film ever made. From the script writing (plot) to acting, costumes, camera movements, editing, everything has so high a quality it acquires international value. The disadvantage of it being so Romanian may diminish a lot of its humor for foreign viewers, but there is something universal about humor that makes the bittersweet truth reach the humanity of each member of the audience rather than their nationality. It is a sour sweet satire of the contemporary Romanian society and underworld of which fiction one begins to doubt as credits start rolling.This is for those who don't know how the director looks like: Nae Caranfil has a cameo as a Karaoke singer. Does the foreign audience applaud when there is a good scene or when the director appears in a cameo, like they did here?What else? The Romanian film critics had designated "Filantropica" as representative for our country in Best Foreign Picture pre-nominations for the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, they didn't know much about publicity and didn't even come up with all the necessary data for the sites & all, but this does not diminish the film's value and the excuse may be that the event was a first time ever.

sjwegg Director Nae Caranfil wasn't short of Romanian anecdotes and stories before the screening of his fourth feature film when I saw it at the Palm Springs International Film Festival: Q: What's the difference between a Romania pessimist and optimist; A: "The pessimist says, 'Things couldn't possibly get worse;' the optimist says 'Oh yes they can.'" And when those attending revealed their knowledge of his native country was confined to the birthplace of Dracula, we were assured, with a knowing grin, that the film to follow would be "a dark, hopeless, miserable comedy." Well, three out of four isn't bad!Using stray dogs as metaphorical bookends the film purports to send up greed, education, governments and a host of social ills using charitable scamming as its glue. Unfortunately, in today's climate of real stories of charities making front page news through scandal or mismanagement the plot's major joke (fake married couple on the 10th anniversary in expensive restaurant, have no cash, big scene with on-the-take-waiter, do-gooder patrons pay off the inflated bill) seems more of a documentary than fiction, thus killing the satire.But the hero as failed writer provides a much better vehicle for black humour that sets up the funniest moments: the railway poet who recites for vodka, only to reveal that he has just two poems and neither of them are his; and wonderfully believable Philanthropy Foundation where writing the lines the for percentage-based fund-beggars on the cash-only payroll brings in a steady flow of charitable donations. Their motto is bang on: "An outstretched hand with no story to tell doesn't work." And so its savvy chairman (Gheorghe Dinica) writes the scripts that include a violinist (who's never played a note but has been coached on how to hold the instrument) that has given up playing in his despair (best to beg near government culture institutions) and climaxes with the beating literature teacher by day Ovidu (played with charming naivety by Florin Calinescu) which leads to a television appearance where a special account is set up for the public to contribute to this unfortunate couple whose only crime was to try and have one night out for their anniversary. Even the sub-plot of the literature teacher trying to seduce one of his most belligerent student's sister is filled with false fronts shallowness. But, it forces him to agree to the scamming so as to have the cash to artificially improve his lifestyle and attempt to bed her when, inevitably, his deception is revealed just on the point on entry. But like the too-forgiving Philip in Of Human Bondage Ovidu keeps going back for more, finally stealing from the foundation to pay the debts of his wayward student only to discover he's given the dough to the sister that wasn't (quelle suprise!). Oh well, at least he gets to keep the girl he's been fictitiously married to for the past decade, forever proving that lies can be lived into reality!Still, the film does provoke thought and is blessed with a knowing camera and a gypsy-esque score composed and performed by Marius Mihalache that adds much to the pace.But at our screening when the film broke-just fifteen minutes from the end-there were not a few of us who could have left then and there with enough of the story resolved to our satisfaction. However, being charitable, we dutifully stayed until the last ask was made.