POLICE, ADJECTIVE (ROMANIA/2009/CORNELIU PORUMBOIU)

Flying the flag for an exciting new trend in Romanian cinema, Police, Adjective takes its cue from the likes of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and California Dreamin’, dealing with another aspect of Romanian society with the darkest of humour. Cristi is a young policeman who has been dispatched to deal with a schoolboy who is dealing hash to classmates. Once in pursuit of the boy, Cristi’s undercover mechanisms give way to sympathy, and as he learns about the boy’s zest for life and relative naïveté to the whole situation, he quickly loses grip on his conviction as a law enforcer. The more he is given instruction and advice from senior officers, the more Cristi begins to feel in touch with his inner child, and when the issue of the boy’s arrest arises, he finds the responsibility something of a personal struggle.

Director Corneliu Porumboiu employs long, voyeuristic takes suggestive of stagnation, and to the passive viewer, it would appear that the film never hits a crescendo. Upon closer inspection, Porumboiu’s sophomore feature reveals itself to be a shrewd twist on the comedy of errors. The humour flows effortlessly from Cristi’s dispassionate exchanges with his employers and girlfriend, painting him as a man exhausted by everyone else’s proactivity. Of particular note is the naturalistic acting – much kudos should go to Dragos Bucur in the lead role, as well as Vlad Ivanov, the soulless abortionist from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days who is almost unrecognisable as Cristi’s stubborn superior.

HOOKED (ROMANIA/2007/ADRIAN SITARU)

Mihai, a stressed schoolteacher, heads out to the countryside with his girlfriend Lubi with the aim of unwinding with a picnic. Driving down a byroad, the two accidentally hit a garishly-dressed prostitute named Ana, and argue about what to do with the body. Lubi, in an apparent habit of hiding everything, wants to dump Ana in the woods and forget it ever happened, a course of action that eventually wins over the didactic Mihai. To their surprise, Ana regains consciousness, and the couple ends up sharing the picnic with her, desperate for her not to find out what really happened. Their phoney benevolence has an unwanted side-effect however, as Ana’s impish behaviour quickly catalyses the dissolution of their relationship.

The movie employs a first-person perspective cinema vérité style, which has recently become associated with horror films like Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. The film however has more in common with British comedy Peep Show, in that the P.O.V. has nothing to do with characters filming themselves. First-time director Adrian Sitaru instead wants us to experience this farcical day out first-hand, and he refuses to reduce the story to key events, prefacing the drama with naturalistic small talk and donating sufficient screen-time to all three lead characters. Though it’s not a hugely novel concept, the film is still highly inventive, unexpectedly funny and beautiful to look at, thanks to a film transfer funded by French sponsors Arte. Hooked is a radiant, understated debut, marking Sitaru as a talent to watch out for.