(A fost sau n’a fost?). “What’s all the fuss about the revolution? No one cares anymore,” says a young trophy mistress during the sixteenth anniversary of the Romanian revolution. Preparing for another year of getting older, drunker, and lonelier, the bickering threesome of a retiree, a teacher, and a television host pose a related question on the host’s show: did a true revolution take place in their town, or did everyone conveniently rebel after the regime collapsed? Several argumentative call-ins, insults, drinks, technical breakdowns, Romany musical interludes, and lies later, they may have an answer, or a new question: “What difference did it make?” Dynamic, sharp-witted, and cut with narrative precision, the Cannes Caméra d’Or–winning 12:08 East of Bucharest is a classic Eastern European allegory of how nations remember (and rewrite) their darkest moments, and how (and why) people need their own stories.

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Porumboiu. Photographed by George Dascalescu, Marius Panduru. With Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru. (89 mins, In Romanian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Tartan Films)

Preceded by short:
Humanitarian Aid (Ajutoare umanitare) (Hanno Höfer, Romania, 2003). Three young Westerners arrive in a Romanian village on a humanitarian mission—but who’s aiding whom? (16 mins, In Romanian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From CNC)

• (Total running time: 105 mins)