Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

lasttimeisaw Actor-turned-director Horatiu Malaele's debut feature, jumping on the bandwagon of Romanian New Wave movement in the noughties, SILENT WEDDING abandons itself to its categorically anti-Soviet ideologue nearly at the expense of a galvanizing story. The frame story is set in the present day Romania, a TV crew specializing in paranormal stories, arrives in a desolate area used to be a Communist factory, affected by a spine-tingling frisson whipped up by the presence of a ghostly bride and the remnant old women-in-black there, a witness recounts the harrowing extirpation of the village to build the factory in 1953, the year when Joseph Stalin died. A joyous and rumbustious flashback makes heavy weather about its bucolic landscape and community, peopled by foul-mouthed but overall congenial countryfolk, amongst which a pair of young lovers Mara (Andreea Victor) and Iancu (Potocean) are going to get married (their mutual orgasm is rendered in exhilarating high pitch). Concomitantly Malaele threads farcical episodes of Communist party recruitment (highlighted by slo-motion and slapstick antics) into the through-line, where an event of open-air cinema is interrupted by a passing circus, whose own hilarity is sequentially, abruptly bookended by a tragic death of a young village girl (implied at the hands of a Russian type) and the departure of Iancu's best friend, the homunculus Sile (Palin). On that wedding day, bad tidings is brought by a Soviet officer that due to the death of Stalin the night before, the whole country is entering a 7-days mourning, wedding is forbidden, anyone who revolts will be executed with high treason. Thus, it triggers the "silent wedding", a weighty defiance against authoritarianism, the film reaches its winning apotheosis in the collectively endeavored cooperation to not make any jarring noise in their covert celebration, including using cloth-wrapped glasses, eating with one's hands instead of crockery, miming and mouthing wedding toasts, the wedding band playing silently and a chucklesome message-passing skit, et.al., until a final moment of liberation that sounds their death knell, the authority is as good as his words. That theatrical kicker (embellished with a surreal touch), to some degree, negates the film's prior effort of ingenuity by veering into an easy route to meet its prefigured perdition and its wraith-of-the-past coda. An anomaly repulsing the post-Cold War ethos, SILENT WEDDING, although errs on the side of its own militancy, lands on its feet in its grassroots advocacy and comedic appeal.

Kirpianuscus it is the only word who could be used about this film. because it represents the best way to remind/present so painful , delicate events from the East than other manner is more than risky. it is a film about dictatorship. about fear, hope and about beginning. about courage and community. about the absurd who defines ordinary people life. and about survive. a film by a remarkable actor who use his laws and nuances and sketches of his experience of performer for do his so personal film. it reminds Kusturica but the theme and the subtle style to give the right image of a dark period does it unique. because it is a profound Romanian film. and this fact does it universal. because , in fact, it is a history lesson. honest, clear, using the most strong, convincing bitter humor. it preserves the taste of Urmuz, Eugene Ionesco or popular jokes under the Communist regime. and this does it a real masterpiece.

dromasca I have known Horatiu Malaele as one of the young and gifted actors of the Romanian theater. Having left Romania 26 years ago I could see him now and then in movies or theater in TV, and heard only sporadic news about other directions he developed in - stage director, theater manager, satiric cartoons artist. Now I could see his first tentative as a movie director, and it is more than satisfying and certainly much more than just a debut. Make no mistake, this film does not look like the 'minimalistic' style films of the younger and better known generation of Romanian directors, it is more theatrical and inspired from classical Romanian literature in conception and looks deeper back into the history of Romania.The story written by Malaele and satiric author and playwright Adrian Lustig is set in the year 1953, the year of the death of Stalin and is supposed to happen around the time Stalin died, although by a decision that could not have been unintentional the action is set in summertime (allowing for a few beautiful countryside takes) while Stalin died on March 5th that year. In a Romania occupied by the Russian army, the traditional agriculture based on private property and way of life of the Romanian peasants fights a war without chances with the Communist economy and ideology imposed by the occupier. A wedding needs to happen, and what should have been a normal event in the course of life becomes a confrontation between two worlds, as no joy and no noise is allowed while the whole planet is supposed to be in grieving for the loss of the Father of the Peoples. The ending is inevitable and symbolic. Malaele and Lustig are not extremely careful with the historical details - I mentioned the date mismatch - but they are extremely true in building a set of characters which are full of color, nuances and humor - a kind of combination of the Romanian literature types encountered in the works of Caragiale and Marin Preda - who by themselves build a world that disappeared and to which this film tries to be a homage. The critic can be made that the negative characters are too schematic, the Communists and the Russian officers look like B-movie villains, but this seems to be intentional again, as the authors seem to say that the whole system that swapped Eastern Europe looked like a bad movies inspired villain system.There are many scenes to remember in this film, which in its best moments reminds the movies of Kusturica at their best. Of course the wedding scene itself is fit for movies anthologies, but I will also keep in mind for long the scene of the screening of the propaganda film in the village, and the closing that gives to the whole movie a different perspective and a supplementary dimension. The team of actors does a very good job, with Meda Andreea Victor shining over all in the role of the bride.I do not know if this was supposed to be a singular tentative in the multiple directions the career of Horatiu Malaele is taking, or whether he plans to continue with other films as director. If he does I will look forward to his future films.

socrateAD This movie is ugly and wrong. It is decadent, sex-obsessed, cynical, nihilist, and against spreading the spirituality to the masses.It is clearly against communists, and Russians (really pathetic though). This hate message theme is politically correct these days. You can make a decent living by swearing to your previous bosses and be pampered by the new ones... As a side joke, it is good that the Chinese communists were not present in Romania, because these intellectual mercenaries would show them as rapists too… I suggest watching "Buletin de Bucuresti" a movie made during the communist regime. You can make a comparison between that comedy and this trash. And keep in mind that old movie contained also propaganda, but anyway it seems to me more honest and real.The main characters are shown making love in the open field in the middle of summer, only a few days before the tragical events occur. By the way guys, you should have known it, you pretend to describe historical events, that Stalin died on 5th of March, a date when it is barely the end of winter in Romania...Intelligent guys are currently in charge with lowering the standard and expectation of the masses. Congrats Lustig and Malaele! This movie is not a mistake, this movie is simply wrong at its roots and intentions.