Romanian film review – Those were the times: Sunt o babă comunistă

If there's one good thing about the end of summer it's that more grown-up films start hitting the cinemas. And there's no moment to soon for that. Take the newest Romanian entry, for example: Sunt o babă comunistă is no less than a literary adaptation directed by no other than Stere Gulea, one of the most interesting directors this country has produced. Dan Lungu's 2007 hit novel Sunt o babă comunistă!/I'm a Communist Biddy! is a pleasant and often amusing criticism of communist nostalgia. Narrated in the first person by its protagonist, a pensioner whose glory days were happening before 1989, the apparently benign stories of her memories denote the inhumanity of an oppressive regime. Emilia's memories are triggered by a conversation with her daughter who lives in Canada and has been building a successful life in a thoroughly capitalist country. Gulea has done some changes to the original text and while they are not groundbreaking, they add more subtlety and actuality to Lungu's story. No wonder, since he has directed one of the best adaptations in Romanian cinema, the powerful Moromeții/The Moromete Family, based on Marin Preda's seminal novel about the transformation of Romania's peasantry in the wake of communism. In his version of Lungu's tale, the main character is just as nostalgic for the old days but what makes the story more thrilling is the fact that her daughter is less capitalist-happy than disillusioned by the system and that the entire plot is set not in the late 1990s but in 2010, when this type of nostalgia was not just going strong but was even reinforced by the failings of capitalism. Both systems get their fare share of criticism and human inconsistency when dealing with the failings of one's present social and political context is treated with gentle wit. This is a film which surprises neither in form nor in content but what raises it above average fare is its mature approach to a contemporary matter and the uniformly good acting. Luminița Gheorghiu, who was actually part of the original Moromeții cast, is ubiquitous these days and there is a good reason for that: the force of her acting is impressive; she makes every film she's in better. Ana Ularu as her daughter is a similarly strong presence while the most welcome surprise comes from casting Marian Râlea as Emilia's gentle husband. Râlea has risen to fame in the early 1990s with his gentle role in children's TV shows and he has been seen too rarely since then. It's great to see a director knowing how to use his melancholic expression to best effects. Sunt o babă comunistă cannot compete with the monumental Moromeții but it's nevertheless an intelligent addition to recent adaptations. Furthermore, any new Stere Gulea film is most welcome. Recommended. The film is currently running in