(Cum mi-am petrecut sfîrşitul lumii). “I made this film because I missed my Romania,” director Cătălin Mitulescu has said, and his warmhearted, anecdotal depiction of the last months of Ceauşescu’s rule is tinged with nostalgia for the everyday details of childhood—even if that childhood involves playfully plotting an assassination. On the outskirts of Bucharest in 1989, seventeen-year-old Eva (Dorotheea Petre) is more or less like any teenager, haltingly pursuing a love affair and observing the antics of her seven-year-old brother Lalalilu (Timotei Duma) with bemused affection. When her boyfriend, the son of a Securitate officer, accidentally smashes a bust of Ceauşescu at school, it changes Eva’s life, and foreshadows larger changes to come. With appealing performances (Petre won the Best Actress award at Cannes) and gentle humor, Mitulescu’s debut feature reconstructs a notorious historical moment on a determinedly human scale. Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders are credited as executive producers; the film is Romania’s entry for the 2007 Academy Awards.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Mitulescu, Andreea Vălean. Photographed by Marius Panduru. With Dorotheea Petre, Timotei Duma, Mircea Diaconu, Jean Constantin. (110 mins, In Romanian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Film Movement, with thanks to CNC)