The Cruise(RJ Retro)
An ensemble drama at its most gripping and a satire at its highest political order – the latter being an impressive feat, given the heavy-handed censorship regime in Romania during the communist era – Mircea Daneliuc’s 1980 film makes use of a boat trip to hint at a society all at sea. A seemingly carefully selected group of young men and women join a free cruise on the Danube as a reward for being “model workers” in their wildly various fields. And wild they certainly turn out to be: oozing discontent and youthful desire, they quickly clash with the adult apparatchiks on board, their (mis)communication and confrontations a thinly-veiled allegory of the inter-generational warfare being fought in an authoritarian state. Instilling the film with social critique and sharp humour aplenty, Daneliuc – who quit the Communist Party and even filmmaking in the mid-1980s to protest against officials cutting up his films – has produced a template for many to follow. A rare occasion to savour the seed which spawned the Romanian New Wave.

Screened with: A Fable
Language: Romanian(English Subtitles)
Category: I
Duration: 3 Mins
Director: Radu Jude
Cast: -
Story: A couch, a boy and two stuffed animals: a three-minute fairytale about freedom and tyranny.
Director
Mircea Daneliuc
Cast
Tora Vasilecsu, Nicolae Albani, Maria Gligor, Paul Lavric
Release Date
24-12-2021
Language
Romanian
Run Time
121 minutes
You may also like