People are voting emotionally.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
View MoreThere are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
View MoreThis could be a story about any border. One of those instances when human decency is maintained underground, DESPITE the law, and the law becomes absurd. Nice line: "Da' ce v-o făcut omu' ăsta vouă?" ("What has this man done to you?") The frontier police (and customs) officers are at times apathetic about the whole business, yet clearly eager to exert their "power" to avoid endangering their position or whatever they want to believe their role is (the opening scene with the fish at the customs is beautiful).This film also tries to keep the local dialect/communicative style authentic, and the lead actor does a great job at it - a nice touch.
View MoreThis film is very interesting for someone is not familiar with old and current immigration laws' fluctuations and amendments in Eastern Europe. The film describes so well how a naive immigrant apparently from Turkey or Bulgaria (in the movie he's referred as "gypsy" later on his name is presumably known) eagerly wants or just needs to head to Germany. He even keeps Deutsche marks rather than Euros in a plastic bag plus local phone numbers there in Germany. This German wish, need or dream seems to keep him alive during his eventual trip without visa across Romania, Hungary, etc.. This guy finds a Romanian man (Nelu) who reacts as actually human being rather than such an immigrant-hunter when he sees the "gypsy" asking for something. Nelu then tries to understand the foreign language of this strange guy he finds by the river while fishing. Overall, the posture of some of the Romanian border patrol agents are also randomly tolerant towards the people crossing their border... either there're still not strong regulations or, in that Romania it is just about the start of a strict migratory law or, the town where this "gypsy" guy is found is just too small that no one really cares about being so strict. Something strikes me about this movie is how naive and actually very fine the people mostly are. Although Nelu uses the money the gypsy gave him, Nelu using it for his own benefit doesn't seem to exploit or to be rude with this new man in Nelu's farm. The gypsy guy happens to be hard-working man, keeping that German wish he's got as a hope, the reason to be diligent and helpful with those are being supportive with them. He follows instructions even though he doesn't understand the language. He only needs to go to Germany somehow; I'm not sure he knows there're borders between his start point to his dreamy final destination, that you may need visas and stuff to touch the country he dreams of... did he know? didn't he know? was he by chance one of those truly naive guys needed to do something without the intention of breaking the law on purpose?
View MoreThis film is about a poor farmer called Nelu, who lives near the border with his wife Florica in a broken-down house. Nelu works as a mall security-guard, well-known and liked by the people in the town. But Nelu is bored with his life, and is very annoyed at the arrogant border-guards, who harass him whenever he has been across the border to catch fish.One day when Nelu is fishing, a strange looking foreigner (presumably an immigrant from the area around Turkey or Afghanistan) comes running along the road, and hides under a bridge until the border-guards have passed. Nelu doesn't tell them where he is, even though he's standing right in front of him, and because of this, the illegal immigrant Behran feels an automatic bond with Nelu, even though they cannot understand each other, and persuades him to help him escape. Nelu thus takes Behran to his home, and has him living in the cellar for a while. His wife Florica doesn't like this one bit, but Nelu convinces her that it is for the best, as Behran can help him do chores around the house, like fixing the roof, peeling potatoes, etc.But as time goes along, it becomes apparent that having an illegal immigrant living in your house is not a long-term solution, and Nelu tries to get rid of Behran, helping him to escape to Northern Europe. But maybe Behran doesn't want to escape anymore, as he has found a true friend in Nelu... and this is where Nelu's troubles really begin!Overall, I'll give this film a 7/10, as it was very heart-warming and funny, but really didn't have much progress throughout, and you quickly knew where the plot was going. The actors were great and had good chemistry, and the quirky humor worked excellent in this film.. now you definitely know what to do, and what NOT to do, if you ever stumble upon a runaway fugitive.
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