Gloomy atmosphere, depiction of overwhelming poverty, people acting at the limit of normality, people desperately trying to escape their fates, shattered lives, people willing to try everything to make money etc. You can pretty much figure out the whole picture. The plot: young lives trying to survive and find a sense in life are ensnared and eventually destroyed by the transforming/dehumanized/impoverished society.
<the spoiler starts here >
The main character, young Mitu, falls in love with the equally young waitress Norica. Suffering deeply after sacrificing, for the sake of his father's career, his adolescence dream of immigrating to USA, Mitu seems to have found again a direction to go and a possible way out from his desolate life. But to Mitu's dismay, Norica declines his proposal, pointing out that they won't be able to support themselves. Moreover, she thinks that her only sensible chance is to marry her employer, the old, sleazy owner of a run-down grill shack at the outskirts of the city.
Further building up the pressure is the brief encounter between Mitu and his brother, now a USA citizen wannabe visiting Romania. Although sent to USA by their unfair father, his brother ended up a failed dishes/toilets washer in a restaurant, and finding this out only adds to the grudge Mitu holds against his family. The family he soon breaks all the ties with, just after being drafted to serve in a tanks unit.
Perhaps the only bright character in the movie is to be found in this unlikely environment, in the person of col. Vatasescu, the tanks unit commander, a man who will constantly struggle to divert Mitu from his self-destructive path. Thus trying to ease up his own guilt of not being able to stop an AWOL soldier from his unit being gunned down in cold blood by the anti-terrorist forces. Anyway, from the moment Mitu becomes a soldier things unravel fast, in a destructive downward spiral pulling him to his doom, despite the colonel's efforts. A lieutenant considering him as a "problem soldier" and constantly humiliating him; Norica's wish to marry her boss for money; the theft of a tank and destruction of the grill shack, hoping to hinder Norica's marriage; the humiliations in the disciplinary regiment he's sentenced to serve into for stealing the tank; Norica's fixation to marry her boss; the theft of a weapon and the get away from the prison; the gunning down of Norica's boss; the elope of Mitu and Norica; the married couple's attempt to avoid capture by the authorities; Mitu's decision to save Norica and face his fate alone. But in the end, the anti-terrorist forces shoot Mitu and the colonel, during the colonel's last effort to save the young man's life.
<the spoiler starts here >
The main character, young Mitu, falls in love with the equally young waitress Norica. Suffering deeply after sacrificing, for the sake of his father's career, his adolescence dream of immigrating to USA, Mitu seems to have found again a direction to go and a possible way out from his desolate life. But to Mitu's dismay, Norica declines his proposal, pointing out that they won't be able to support themselves. Moreover, she thinks that her only sensible chance is to marry her employer, the old, sleazy owner of a run-down grill shack at the outskirts of the city.
Further building up the pressure is the brief encounter between Mitu and his brother, now a USA citizen wannabe visiting Romania. Although sent to USA by their unfair father, his brother ended up a failed dishes/toilets washer in a restaurant, and finding this out only adds to the grudge Mitu holds against his family. The family he soon breaks all the ties with, just after being drafted to serve in a tanks unit.
Perhaps the only bright character in the movie is to be found in this unlikely environment, in the person of col. Vatasescu, the tanks unit commander, a man who will constantly struggle to divert Mitu from his self-destructive path. Thus trying to ease up his own guilt of not being able to stop an AWOL soldier from his unit being gunned down in cold blood by the anti-terrorist forces. Anyway, from the moment Mitu becomes a soldier things unravel fast, in a destructive downward spiral pulling him to his doom, despite the colonel's efforts. A lieutenant considering him as a "problem soldier" and constantly humiliating him; Norica's wish to marry her boss for money; the theft of a tank and destruction of the grill shack, hoping to hinder Norica's marriage; the humiliations in the disciplinary regiment he's sentenced to serve into for stealing the tank; Norica's fixation to marry her boss; the theft of a weapon and the get away from the prison; the gunning down of Norica's boss; the elope of Mitu and Norica; the married couple's attempt to avoid capture by the authorities; Mitu's decision to save Norica and face his fate alone. But in the end, the anti-terrorist forces shoot Mitu and the colonel, during the colonel's last effort to save the young man's life.