Police, Adjective (2009)

A police officer refuses to arrest a young man for offering drugs to his friends.

Director:

Corneliu Porumboiu

Writer:

Corneliu Porumboiu

Stars:

Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Ion Stoica

15 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dragos Bucur	...	Cristi
Vlad Ivanov	...	Anghelache
Ion Stoica	...	Nelu
Irina Saulescu	...	Anca
Cerasela Trandafir	...	Gina
Marian Ghenea	...	Prosecutor
Cosmin Selesi	...	Costi
Serban Georgevici	...	Sica
George Remes	...	Vali
Adina Dulcu	...	Dana
Dan Cogalniceanu	...	Gica
Costi Dita	...	Officer on Duty
Alexandru Sabadac	...	Alex
Anca Diaconu	...	Doina
Radu Costin	...	Victor

Storyline

In grim, dull Vaslui, Cristi is a young police officer, conscientious, laconic, recently married to Anca, a teacher. He's tailing a kid who smokes pot and may be supplying his friends. Cristi dislikes the assignment: the kid's clearly not a dealer, an arrest would ruin his life, and, Cristi assumes that Romania will soon tolerate marijuana. His superior tells him flatly that the law is the law and to finish the case with a quick arrest. Cristi wants to follow the informant, a youth whose father is a builder. Cristi watches, he smokes, he writes reports, he wants to meet with the prosecutor. Can a cop have a conscience? Is the noun being modified "procedural" or "state"?

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Plot Keywords:

police | police officer | marijuana | prosecutor | romania | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Romania

Language:

Romanian

Release Date:

3 July 2009 (Romania)

Also Known As:

Police, Adjective

Filming Locations:

Romania

Box Office

Budget:

EUR800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$19,452, 27 December 2009

Gross USA:

$53,206

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$121,977

Company Credits

Production Co:

42 Km Film, Periscop Film, Racova

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Romania's official submission to 82nd Academy Award's Foreign Language in 2010.

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Soundtracks

Nu te parasesc iubire
Performed by Mirabela Dauer
Arranged by Dan Dimitriu
Lyrics by Dan Ioan Pantoiu
Produced by Roton Music
Played and discussed at Cristi's home

User Reviews

Cinema, superlative - credible, original, precise

One of the best movies of the year - and, definitely, of the Romanian cinema all over.

After "12:08: East of Bucharest" (aka "A fost sau n-a fost" - original title), Cornel Porumboiu does it again: an incisive and tender, empathic and ruthless look into our contemporary humanity. It brings back memories of Kafka's "Trial": the blind mechanism of Law, meant to help us live better and, because of so many machine-like people, turned into a device for destroying lives. In the role of the young policeman who loses his faith into the system, Dragos Bucur brings on screen another of his memorable performances - subtle, deep, finely tuned.

But the main virtue of this excellent movie, of course, is Cornel's directing - credible, original, precise. The static long shots, creating pent-up inner tensions... the unbearable waiting scenes, under a leaden sky... the discrete plastic compositions of the frame... the insidious rhythm... the careful attention to the minutest details - everything, with a due meaning and a perfectly weighted impact.

Special kudos for the pivotal scene built up around Mirabela Dauer's song "I Don't Leave You Love" - a rare piece of abstruse idiocy, used as a main axis for the protagonist's confrontation with the life's absolute absurdity. The scene is so masterfully built and shot, that it makes us scream laughing (in Cannes, the audience was delirious) - but the ultimate meaning is tragic... this being Porumboiu's definitory characteristic - as he said himself: "comical authors are often the saddest ones of all".