Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii (2006)

Director:

Catalin Mitulescu

Writers:

Catalin Mitulescu (writer)
Andreea Valean (writer)

Release Date:

30 August 2006 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In the communist era, in Romania, people live with hope of a new life, in freedom.

Plot Keywords:

Romania | Male Rear Nudity | Communist Indoctrination | Assassination Plot | Fall Of Communism

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Doroteea Petre	...	Eva Matei
Timotei Duma	...	Lalalilu Matei
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anca Ahrfrescu
Sergiu Anghel
Monalisa Basarab
Ionut Becheru	...	Alexandru 'Vomicã'
Adrian Bulboaca
Radu Câmpean
Jean Constantin	...	Uncle Floricã
Flaviu Crisan
Mircea Diaconu	...	Grigore Matei
Sorin Dinculescu
Bogdan Dumitrache	...	Doctor
Gheorghe Farcas
Grigore Gonta	...	Ceausicã - Alexandru's father
Grigore Moldovan
Oxana Moravec
Adrian Nicolae
Stellan Nicolae
Vasile Nicolae
Cristian Nicolaie	...	Nucu
Valentin Popescu	...	Music teacher
Nicolae Praida	...	Titi
Adrian Rosu
Arcadio Rusu	...	Trogar
Marius Stan	...	Tarzan
Marian Stoica	...	Silvicã
Corneliu Tigancu	...	Bulba
Carmen Ungureanu	...	Maria Matei
Vera Ungureanu	...	Mama Tarzan
Cristian Vararu	...	Andrei
Marin Vasile
Florin Zamfirescu	...	Highschool principal

Also Known As:

Comment j'ai fêté la fin du monde (France)
How I Celebrated the End of the World (International: English title)
The Way I Spent the End of the World (International: English title)

Runtime:

Canada:106 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Romania | France

Language:

Romanian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:AL | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company:

Les Films Pelléas

Goofs:

Anachronisms: There is a longer scene in the movie showing a bus trying to turn around on muddy soil. The bus is a Rocar bus, which has been produced only after 1990, and it has stickers on its doors, which surely have not been used before 1989.

"our country is our country" says the song from the music class :)

I have seen this movie recently, and it wasn't bad. I was amused by some of the comments made on this site about the movie, like the one disappointed viewer that said "I'm not a fan of Balkan or gypsy music and especially not a fan of national anthems". From some of the comments you would think this movie was a musical. No, it contains very little music, and it is often obligatory to sing the national anthem at school, especially during communism, so it is not something you like or no, it is something that you do.

I understand that the title may be misleading, that one may expect something else, and especially if you are not Romanian, you may not "feel" the movie very well. One viewer that posted a comment said he was confused about the story line, that there was no plot, but only events and people that didn't make sense. I found the story line quite simple, and I found the so called mystery of it to be necessary. It made everything seem as if it was somebody's experience and not real events. I don't know how others found the camera work, some complained that there were objects in front of the camera that seemed carelessly done. I thought the camera work was like that on purpose. Again, for me, it was as if somebody was observing all this in a certain way, and thus the camera tried to adjust to it, to make it more into an experience rather than a clear cut picture. I expected myself the movie to be more about the actual revolution. However, this movie is not about the Romanian revolution as the events of the story only culminate in the revolution at the very end of the movie. The end of the world rather, contains of months that were spend before the revolution, and I think captures well the hopelessness of everything, and the feelings that something is about to come to an end, to change somehow. Thus, those sad months are the so called end of the world, and the end of the movie is a new start.

Last thing to mention was also that this movie does not offer a global view of Romania or of Bucharest or the Romanian Revolution. The story only centers around one family, and their situation, fears, friends, etc. Thus, restricting the story to such a small scale might make viewing harder especially for non-Romanians. Even for some Romanians it may seem pointless to watch this family for the duration of the movie. However, for others like myself, you may find that the story was nicely told, the characters were well portrayed and that the movie was well done. One can argue that it is not perfect, and that it could have been this and that, but generally I thought it was very nice to see.