Communism’s collapse changed Romanian cinema, and filmmakers began to explore both the earlier period under the dictator Ceausescu, and the country’s current social and economic crisis. They did it with films like Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005), which won a prize at Cannes and many other prizes around the world, Corneliu Porumboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest “(2006), and Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” which received the Palm d’Or at Cannes. These films put Romanian cinema on the map. In the last decade, excepting Mungiu’s “Graduation” (2016) — a film that depicts a country where corruption and unhappiness are the rule — few Romanian films have since matched those striking works made in the 21st century’s first decade.
If that moment no longer exists, there are good Romanian films being made. A few days ago I saw, at the Berkshire International Film Festival, “Miracle,” a third feature written and directed by Bogdan George Apetri. It’s a crime drama, the second of a trilogy, enveloped in a sense of quotidian ominousness, and a narrative that is much more complicated and less accessible than it superficially seems.
The film begins by observing Cristina (Ioana Bugarin), an unhappy young novice at a convent, who is despondently off in a taxi to see a doctor, supposedly for headaches. She is constantly making cell phone calls that aren’t answered. Her driver is irritable and harsh, and her fellow passenger is a middle-aged doctor at the hospital, who is anticlerical and critical of Romanian society, which is one of the secondary themes of the film. Cristina has the taxi stop so she can change her habit for secular clothing, and when in hospital goes for a gynecological exam, rather than to a neurologist. She leaves the hospital without dealing with her pregnancy, and picks up another taxi driven by a seemingly pleasant man. But appearances are deceiving, and the director provides a stunning long take and long shot that conveys the cab driver’s rape and beating of Cristina mainly through sound. In the scene the camera travels a circle, conveying danger, accentuated by the added sound of rustling trees and thunder.
The film’s second half centers on tough, irate, and humane police detective Marius (powerfully performed by Emanuel Parvu) who angrily dismisses Christian piety and platitudes in his questioning of the convent nuns and his interactions with his slow-thinking subordinate. He also feels he is surrounded by incompetents and fools, which make the case harder to resolve.
Marius is relentless in trying to get the cab driver to confess, but the man continually denies having killed Cristina. Possessed by the crime, Marius tries to plant evidence to trap the driver. The film never spells out why he behaves in that driven manner, and in fact, when questioning a barely alive Christina, who refuses to identify the cab driver, he whispers in her ear and kisses her passionately. Is Marius the man (father of her unborn child) she is calling on her cell phone, who refuses to answer? The film leaves Marius’ actions unexplained, and there is no simple closure, just a great deal of ambiguity and a sense of profound anguish.
Apetri directs with consummate skill, building controlled tension, especially with his cinematography, and getting strong performances from his cast. “Miracle” is a very good film that BIFF should be proud to have presented as part of the Festival.
