A beautiful story about time, coincidences and happenstance. Three stories intertwine and characters influence one another's life without ever knowing it. Excellent and convincing performances from both veteran actors and newcomers. Even though it made me laugh a lot, after I finished watching it didn't taste like a comedy, but more like a sad love story. And even though love doesn't conquer all (love between man and woman, love between friends, love for one's country), the story doesn't feel hopeless and bleak, not even once. A must-see for anyone interested in Eastern European productions.

PS: The version I saw had English subtitles, but they were sometimes incomplete and a couple of times rather badly translated. I felt they didn't do their best to do justice to the lines.

My friends in Bucharest recommended this film: 'you must see it, it's better than 4-3-2'. 4-3-2 is the short for '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days', the film that made director Cristian Mungiu known in the West and brought him a 'Palme d'Or' in Cannes exactly one year ago. I tend to agree, but I would add 'yes, better, but mostly for Romanian viewers'.

'Occident' deals with what has been in Communist Romania a national obsession and what became today a national and social phenomenon - the aspiration of the young generation to run away from a country where they cannot build a decent life and the mirage of the Occident. The story happens in the year 2000 and is told three times, from three different angles belonging each to a pair of characters, each time changing the perspective and revealing new angles of the story, changing its sense and even its ending. It is a smart story, in a style much more nervous than '4-3-2' which had a linear story telling, with long scenes giving the actors better opportunities for deeper performances.

And yet 'Occident' tells a lot of harsh truths about the Romanian society, about its corruption, emptiness, lack of education. All these will be much better understood by Romanian viewers however. It is also a different time, the characters in 'Occident' may be desperate to run away, but the difference is that they can do it, while '4-3-2' characters have no place to run. This may be one of the reasons that '4-3-2' impressed more viewers out of Romania. What happened in the last years of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu was criminal and may be shocking for less initiated viewers, but is by no means news for most of the Romanians, excepting the very young ones. Ceausescu still sells better even after his death.

I've started widening my perspective on the world, on people and, ultimately, concerning the movies. I used to think, as too many kids my age still do, that Romanian movies can't be good. It's something "our" generation thinks of because we are all thinking of moving abroad, of getting away from this, in the end, beautiful country. The country itself is beautiful, it's our actions that destroy it and make our lives miserable. This movie is a so called comedy. It's a comedy exactly in the style of Filantropica, a comedy that makes you feel a very deep sorrow, especially if you are Romanian and understand everything as it is. It's a superbly done movie and I dare to say it's better than Filantropica. Quite a lot better. The story in itself is deeper than the one in Filantropica and, what is very important, Cristian Mungiu has an incredibly geniuine way of bringing his ideas to the screen.

SPOILERS

The story has a main plot which is composed of three secondary plots. Each part brings important new elements and it would be impossible to watch only one and know how the movie will end. So the three stories each focus on two characters, but in the end they all focus on the leading actor, Alexandru Papodopol, whose character's name is Luci. He comes out as the biggest loser out of the whole story. Not only does he waste his relationship with his almost to-be-wife, but he also ignores the affections of young "co-worker" Mihaela.

The first thing that I noticed in the movie is the ironic touch of the director. For example, the number of the car which Gica(the role of the typical friend) is B 63 PCR. PCR,in Romanian, has two meanings. One regards the old communist party, and the other sounds something like "Bribes, Corruption and Relations". At the moment, this is one of the biggest problems there are around here, and it is also something which we can observe during the movie. For example the way Luci got his job from his employer, who knew the director of a kindergarten, the one at which Luci's wife worked for some time. I personally believe, after seeing the whole movie ,that the relations between the employer and the teacher were something more than "friendly", if you understand what I want to say.

Then again, the "Corruption" idea is present as the colonel offers some money to one of the police officers who were present at his house and saw the Italian who was black(something totally unexpected). "Relations" are also present: the way the colonel is found by Nae and the way he gets Nae to take his girl with him to Germany.

This idea being settled I want to mention a few more things I noticed during the film. An important scene is the one where Nae wants to take a grape, or some fruit, and finds out it's only decorative. It shows something about the society of our days, a society often criticized by great Romanian writers like the brilliant Caragiale or by the critic and novel writer(well, not only...) G. Calinescu. It's the fact that the whole society is very superficial and much too often priorities get all mixed up, which sometimes leads to disasters. Money is often too important and there is always a lust for more. The situation presented in Occident just made me think of a recent book I read by Calinescu, about these superficial people who do not care about feelings but only about all the material, and actually not lasting, things.

An important theme which the movie wants to point at is the mentality which rules among the young generations, the idea of moving abroad as soon as possible, because Romania has nothing to offer. This is, of course, not true, maybe partly, but certainly not totally. It will take time until people will learn to keep in mind where they grew up and remember to come back. At this time, it happens much to rare.

The characters are partly interesting. As I said, Luci is the loser. He is a little shy, but he does stand up for himself and knows right from wrong.

On the other hand, Sorina, his "girlfriend", is a person obsessed by the thought of getting out of Romania. Unfortunately I didn't really like the actress who performed her role. It seemed just too distant...even more distant than it should've... Mihaela is another desperate person, who suffers especially because of...love. It's something we all suffer of from time to time, but her situation is a little more desperate. After being dumped, in a way, at her wedding she is, of course, very depressed. By meeting Luci she starts hoping that there might be a chance, but Luci doesn't cease the moment and so Mihaela is forced to...act. She is also a poem writer...which is something we all are. I guess everyone has a period when they write poems, and some dream of winning something from it, others just want it to be there. It does show about her character, how much she lives for a dream. "The cop" is something like the immoral man who doesn't care about the time any more. He betrays his wife, and, sincerely speaking, I can't blame him, but one has to accept some moral duties. His police forces is absolutely pathetic and this is another touch of the director, who wishes to make fun of the cops, who are often considered stupid. I personally can't say if it's true or not, but it seems that many people agree to this theory...sooo... As a kind of sub-character is the landlord at the tenement where Luci was living, that is before he got kicked out. The typical "smart guy", who knows everything but always needs to big monkeys around him to be able to say anything.

Each time a story ends you expect to know what happens, but as the next one develops you can understand the under-layers of the whole plot and things come smoothly together. It's always a cliff-hanger somewhere and the plot does have some 180 degree turns. If there's something which bothered me, it's the two kids spitting at each other. It's not the fact in itself, but it is the idea that one of them looks so much like a gipsy, and I consider that a small discrimination. Yes, you might say "Hey, it's only a comedy" but, let's be sincere: would you call this movie a comedy just because it brings a few laughs and it is ironic and shows some beautiful satire of Romanian life?

There was some handy camerawork too, but it wasn't as if I hadn't seen it anywhere before. "Occident" is a movie which looks like a western made movie, if we consider the scenario and the way the action is presented. One might compare it to Pulp Fiction, because of the way the story is shown, but I think there is a certain difference between the two. It is a beautiful piece of art and it shows that there are Romanian directors and actors who can do a great job as well as all the American actors and directors. Of course, I won't start comparing with "classics", but I'm referring to some certain well known persons. Doesn't matter really who.

Also...this is a movie about the ironies of life. Just in case you didn't notice. The sometimes cruel ironies of life: the way the lives of the characters cross. By the way, I remember the beautiful beginning with the train rails, which crossed each other. Great "touch".

Compared to Filantropica...yes, it's certainly better. It's more real than Filantropica, it's easier to imagine it's...just as it should be.

About the mark...yes, I thought quite some time about it. It's a certain 8.5 I'd say now. I can't really say that it is more towards 8...but still, it remains to your choice. Just try and get this movie. It's worth it! "Free your mind"