Tales from the Golden Age | Little White Lies

Tales from the Golden Age

29 Oct 2009 / Released: 30 Oct 2009

Words by Matt Bochenski

Directed by Cristian Mungiu, Hanno Höfer, and Razvan Marculescu

Starring Diana Cavallioti, Radu Iacoban, and Vlad Ivanov

Three people in a kitchen, one man preparing food on a table with a pig nearby.
Three people in a kitchen, one man preparing food on a table with a pig nearby.
3

Anticipation.

A portmanteau movie! Oh: with Cristian Mungiu.

3

Enjoyment.

Sly, wry, funny and illuminating.

3

In Retrospect.

Communism is always good for a few chuckles.

This anthology film is sly, wry, funny and illuminating.

Two words to strike terror into the heart of the average movie fan: portmanteau film. Two words to reignite some hope: Cristian Mungiu.

Tales From The Golden Age began life as a solo project for the Palme d’Or winner in which he planned to write and direct a fictional feature base on real-life urban legends from Romania’s communist era under the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Instead, in a move that the collectivist system would have applauded, he invited four of Romania’s most promising young filmmakers to join him.

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The result is five vignettes which, collectively, paint a picture of Romania that is at once bleak but strangely nostalgic. What shines through is the proud spirit of the Romanian people, who found ways to endure in a system that veered unpredictably from the comically ineffective to the starkly insidious.

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