Romanian film review – Lost in translation: Solitudes

interfilm, the recently completed International Short Film Festival Berlin (12 - 17 November), is one of the most important ones for the genre, with a selection impressive in its diversity of genres, production countries, and cinematic ages. A vibrant, open, innovative and fun festival, interfilm has once again proven that it's one of the most important and enjoyable fests around, and not just as far as short films are concerned. The Romanian presence has been traditional with interfilm but this year, strangely, it shrunk visibly. There was one single Romanian film, and to be even more precise, a co-production with France. But what a film this is. Solitudes by Liova Jedlicki, written by Alexandra Badea, is one of those stories slapping you in the face and leaving you rattled and shaken. It's uncomfortable, tense, and fascinating. A Paris-based Romanian young professional earns some extra money by translating for the French police. His most recent encounter is with a Romanian prostitute who was raped and is now interrogated at the station. The films loses no time and cuts directly to the heart of the matter: the statement given to a jaded police physician, a dialogue brilliant in its absurdity and black humour. While the sordid details of the crime are getting more and more shocking as the interrogation continues and the victim becomes the accused, the translator's initial matter-of-fact poise starts to crumble. There is no emotional deliverance here or bonding over the status of being an immigrant in Paris, it would have been too easy and too much of a cliché. The chasm between these two characters, both socially and intellectually is too deep to allow for that, and maybe the film's lean running time as well, but what they do share by the end of the film is the status of an outsider and the helplessness associated with it. Two people standing each with their own loneliness but not meant to share anything else. Rightfully so, Solitudes won the Award for Best Live Action Feature in a strong international competition featuring such impressive achievements as Gabriel Gauchet's pitch-perfect The Mass of Men (the big winner of the festival). If Solitudes has one fault it's the fact that it's rather an episode than a full story and a bit more context would have rounded the narrative better but this does not take away the sheer intensity of the moment depicted on screen. I saw Solitudes