Summary

It is the 20th of December, 1989, and Ceaușescu’s regime is on its last legs. The army violently suppresses an uprising in Timișoara, but any news that reaches Bucharest is scant and sanitised. Six people find themselves in the eye of the storm without realising it. A TV director has to find a way to save his New Year’s show after the key actress defects. The solution lies with a distressed theatre actress who can’t reach her ex-boyfriend in Timișoara. Meanwhile the director’s son, a student, plans to flee to Yugoslavia by swimming across the Danube. Watching the son is an officer of the Securitate secret police, who struggles to move his mother from her soon-to-be-demolished house to a new apartment she cannot stand. The move is being executed by a factory worker, who panics after his son writes a letter to Santa Claus that reveals his father wants Ceaușescu dead. All these lives, under constant and invisible surveillance by the Securitate, converge in a tragicomedy that climaxes with the bang of a firecracker in an highly unlikely pair of hands, effectively kicking off the revolution.

138 min / English Subs / R 12 / Drama – Comedy

Produced by Kinotopia

Distributed by Imagine Film / Cercamon

Cast

Răzvan Vasilescu – director teatru

Manuela Hărăbor – Alina Silvestru

Ioana Flora – Mariana

Mihai Călin – Ștefan Silvestru

Adrian Văncică – Gelu

Nicodim Ungureanu – șofer taxi

Elvira Deatcu – doamna

Emilia Dobrin – Margareta Dincă

Gabriel Spahiu – Benghe

Victoria Raileanu – Lili

Marian Râlea – Mihalcea

Ion Sapdaru – tovarășul Vârtosu

Dana Voicu – farmacista

Vasile Muraru – nea Romică

Iulian Postelnicu – Ionuț Dincă

Sorin Cociș – Stamate

Mircea Andreescu – nea Chican

Ada Galeș – Camelia Dincă

Marian Adochiței – Berlogea

Marius Damian – nea Jiji

Ilinca Hărnuț – scenografa

Claudia Susanu – vânzătoare (voce)

Virgil Aioanei – colegul lui Gelu

Nicoleta Hâncu – Florina

Angel Popescu – Alex

Doru Cătănescu – poștaș

Florinela Grapini – vecina

Florentina Năstase – asistentă platou

Theodor Șoptelea – Manu

Ioan Paraschiv – anchetator

Vlad Jipa – tovarășul Marcel

Afrodita Androne – secretară platou

Iulian Burciu – călăuza

Luca Toma – Marius

Remus Stănescu – tânăr securist

Nicu Rotaru – trecător cu câine

Vlad Ionuț Popescu – Vlad

Andrei Miercure – Laurențiu Silvestru

Alice Cora Mihalache – Solange

Dana Piroiu – singer Gloria

Radu Gabriel – cameraman Gabi

Mircea Lăcătuș – editor

Florin Calbajos – securist #1

Mario Marin – child with firecrackers

Lemne Mihail – activist