Romanian film review – Crime and complicity: One Floor Below
Radu Muntean is a filmmaker of great precision and his latest film is a masterclass in faultless, highly precise filmmaking. The most exciting release of the year after Aferim! and (although some might disagree) The Treasure, Un etaj mai…
Ioana Moldovan · Journalist
· Updated · 2 min read
Radu Muntean is a filmmaker of great precision and his latest film is a masterclass in faultless, highly precise filmmaking. The most exciting release of the year after Aferim! and (although some might disagree) The Treasure, Un etaj mai jos/One Floor Below is currently running in cinemas across the country and you should watch it. The plot is simple: a fairly happy family
man
an
d
(equally fairly) successful business owner,
likeable
Pătrașcu
hears
an argument in his apartment building and shortly after, one of the arguing couple, a young woman, is found dead. When the police come to interrogate the tenants,
he
doesn't mention the argument and keeps baulking it throughout the movie. Things take an unsettling turn when the young man who had argued with the victim,
the
creepy
downstairs neighbour,
keeps showing up at
Pătrașcu's door
asking
for
help with his
car
registr
ation
and, more alarmingly,
entering
his family life, fixing his teenage son's
computer
and chatting with his wife.
Not a word
is spoken
about the argument or what each man knows about the other.
When the showdown happens, it's sudde
n
,
s
hort, and
violent.
But w
hile the
story
may
