Filantropica (2002)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Nae Caranfil

Writer:

Nae Caranfil (writer)

Release Date:

15 March 2002 (Romania)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Ovidiu, a high-school teacher looking for an extra buck, finds an unexpected way to earn easy money. |

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | Money | High School | Limousine | Eastern Europe

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Mircea Diaconu	...	Ovidiu Gorea
Gheorghe Dinica	...	Pavel Puiut
Mara Nicolescu	...	Miruna
Viorica Voda	...	Diana Dobrovicescu
Marius Florea Vizante	...	Simpaticul
Florin Zamfirescu	...	Poetul Garii de Nord
Cristian Gheorghe	...	Robert Dobrovicescu
Florin Calinescu	...	Himself
Constantin Draganescu	...	Tatal
Monica Ghiuta	...	Mama
Ovidiu Niculescu	...	Ospatarul
Valentin Popescu	...	Recuperator #1
Nae Caranfil	...	Karaoke singer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gabriela Bobes
Marius Rizea

Also Known As:

Philanthropique (France)
Philanthropy (International: English title)

Runtime:

110 min | France:113 min

Country:

Romania | France

Language:

Romanian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Domino Film

Movie Connections:

References Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)

Best Romanian film ever made

I had the exquisite privilege to see the film's premiere and since then I've been to see it five more times. It is the best Romanian film ever made. From the script writing (plot) to acting, costumes, camera movements, editing, everything has so high a quality it acquires international value. The disadvantage of it being so Romanian may diminish a lot of its humor for foreign viewers, but there is something universal about humor that makes the bittersweet truth reach the humanity of each member of the audience rather than their nationality. It is a sour sweet satire of the contemporary Romanian society and underworld of which fiction one begins to doubt as credits start rolling.

This is for those who don't know how the director looks like: Nae Caranfil has a cameo as a Karaoke singer. Does the foreign audience applaud when there is a good scene or when the director appears in a cameo, like they did here?

What else? The Romanian film critics had designated "Filantropica" as representative for our country in Best Foreign Picture pre-nominations for the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, they didn't know much about publicity and didn't even come up with all the necessary data for the sites & all, but this does not diminish the film's value and the excuse may be that the event was a first time ever.