Corina Radu: Bar de Zi and other stories
My story has no importance, there is nothing special about me, says one of the characters in this fine social story set in Sibiu, Romania. The filmmakers have got the permission to film a group of citizens, who all come to the same bar, are middle-aged and old people, who are as different as the rest of us and who have got their scars in life from too much drinking and poverty and consequently, for some of them, illness, death in the families and other tough marks to carry around.
The film is social in a classical way, but with small playful montage sequences and a well chosen music that includes great nostalgic bar tunes from England. You need to lighten up a film like that and the director succeeds to get in to their homes and bedrooms, put in great anecdotes and pocket philosophical remarks. It creates a light non-sentimental atmosphere to accompany the curious observational camera.
The film was made as part of an international workshop, Aristoteles, financed by MEDIA Programme of the EU, the tv-station Arte and (in this case) TVRomania. Well done, Corina Radu confirms that a lot of good happens with Romanian film right now.
Romania, 2007, 57 mins.
www.aworkshop.org
http://www.astrafilm.ro/Awards%202007.htm#bar
corinaradu7@yahoo.com
