QWFF ’19: Hawaii

During Romania’s dark days of Communism, the state controlled all three means of production with an iron fist, most definitely including natural resources, in accordance with the principles of socialism. Owning land was completely out of the question, especially a farm valued at $3 million. Taking possession of such a property in the Aloha State would be an utter pipe dream, but an oppressed cab driver is determined to claim his inheritance and his freedom, despite the serious risks in Jesus del Cerro’s Hawaii, which screens as part of the 2019 Queens World Film Festival.

Even though his sister married a borish Party member, Andrei Florescu’s family will always be under suspicion, due to his father Vasile. Back when the regime really consolidated power, Vasile and his two brothers tried to escape via a makeshift hot air balloon. He was captured alive and another brother was recovered dead, but Petrus disappeared, never to be heard from since—until now. It turns out, Petrus made it to America and eventually settled on a nice little coffee plantation in Hawaii. He lived a happy life there, but he missed his family, so when he died, he willed his estate to Vasile.

Unfortunately, Ceausescu’s strict socialist government does not recognize property rights. If the Party found out about the bequeathal, they would claim it themselves. That is not something Florescu, his father, or the American government would like to see come to pass. Increasingly annoyed by the petty humiliations and constant shortages of socialism, Floresu resolves to claim the property for himself in neighboring Yugoslavia, where Tito has much more liberal policies regarding property ownership. However, just as he starts wrestling with visa and passport applications, he ever so coincidentally meets Ioana Balan, who happens to be perfectly his type. Unfortunately, she is also her boss’s type. That would be Scarlat, a ruthless officer in the secret police.

Even though it is a much darker film, the hot air balloon plot element brings to mind Delbert Mann’s better-than-average live-action Disney movie, Night Crossing, which dramatized the Strelzyk and Wetzel families’ escape from East Germany. There is a bit of black humor, at Ceausescu’s expense, but there is no nostalgia for life under his misrule. In fact, del Cerro and co-screenwriters Manuel Feijoo, Beatriz G. Cruz, and Ruxandra Ghitescu incisively explain the psychological ramifications of living under a repressive regime, including how some dissidents could take leave of their families, potentially forever, for the sake of freedom.

Dragos Bucur is terrific as Florescu, who initially seems to be a likably roguish everyman, but he develops into a figure of great depth and poignancy.  Likewise, Cristina Flutur’s work as Blatan really sneaks up on viewers, especially when she is forced to confront the consequences of her decisions. Constantin Cojocaru performance as old Vasile is similarly complex and humanistic, while Andi Vasluianu absolutely chilling as the sadistic and manipulative Scarlat.

Frankly, it is probably a little too easy to see the Communist past in contemporary Bucharest, but production designer Calin Papura and the design team still deserve credit for their impressive recreation of the drably draconian Ceausescu era. It provides a timely reminder of what socialist living was like and also makes the case that nice guys can be interesting too. Very highly recommended, Hawaii screens tomorrow night (3/28), during the 2019 QWFF.

QWFF ’19: Bad Bad Winter

What’s a little wealth redistribution between friends? You could also call it home invasion, armed robbery, and hostage-taking, but that would be too honest. Regardless, a group of old Kazakhstani friends will not be friends much longer in Olga Korotko’s Bad Bad Winter, which screens as part of the 2019 Queens World Film Festival.

Dinara has returned to the provincial town of her school days to close out her recently deceased grandmother’s cozy cottage. Since leaving to study medicine in Astana, here fortunes have improved greatly and so have those of her businessman father. In contrast, the prospects of her old classmates have stayed as lousy as ever—or even gotten worse. Nevertheless, she is still sufficiently interested in her old flame Marat to spend the night with him.

Regrettably, Marat happens to spy her granny’s rather sizable untapped stash of cash, so he returns the next day with his suspicious girlfriend Arai, and fellow schoolmates Aibek and Sanzhar, who are facing a potential murder charge along with Marat, if they cannot adequately grease the necessary official palms. Obviously, they intend to steal that cash Dinara subsequently tucked away, but finding it again will be trickier than Marat expected. For a while, everyone pretends this a just a soiree for old friends, but they eventually acknowledge what it really is: a home invasion. Of course, Dinara knew it all along. After all, she always was the smartest one in class.

The strange is-this-a-thriller-or-isn’t tone of film’s first thirty minutes or so makes it hard to pigeonhole, but it is weirdly effective. Of course, it inevitably becomes clear this is indeed a rather dark crime drama, at which point Dinara strips away the pretenses and levels a withering moral judgment on her captors.

It is too bad New York’s congressional delegation probably will not see Winter, because it depicts redistributionist class-warfare as the thuggery it is. Frankly, Aibek’s threats and justifications are uncomfortably similar to their own rhetoric. It is also telling how Dinara’s “guests” berate her one minute for wearing frumpy old clothes and then accuse her of lording her wealth over them.

This is also a great example of a film helmed by a woman and powered by a formidable female lead, but it is not likely to turn up in surveys women-driven filmmaking. Regardless, Tolganay Talgat is absolutely riveting as Dinara. It is fiercely intelligent performance that covers an awful lot of physical and psychological ground. As the psychotic Aibek, Zhalgas Zhangazin exudes creepy malevolence. There is something deeply unsettling about his violent sense of entitlement, probably because it hits so close to home. Tair Magzumov manages to project an extremely weird pathos as the remorseful junkie, Sanzhar, while Nurgul Alpysbayeva further ratchets up the hothouse tension as the jealous Arai.

With its confined setting and five principal characters, Winter has all the elements of the classic stage thriller. Korotko marshals them all quite effectively, but there is also some subtle social commentary (especially regarding the Kazakhstani justice system) woven in. Very highly recommended, Bad Bad Winter screens this Wednesday (3/27) during QWFF ’19.