Looking for movies, shows, games, or books similar to Special Edition? Check out these recommendations on mosaic.
Titi and Marius, two friends who fought together during the revolution of 1989, follow very different social and political paths in its aftermath.
This Romanian dramatic comedy offers metaphorical commentary on life after Ceausescu's reign as it tells the story of a rural community turned topsy-turvy in their mad quest for the snails a prominent senator has requested for his dinner. The trouble begins when a rather imposing, pompous senator comes to visit a small rural Romanian town for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new hydro-electric dam. After he finishes his speech, the senator is accosted by a Swiss film crew eager to interview him. The senator is inordinately concerned with presenting a positive image of Romania to the world at large and so when he learns that he and the journalists are to stay at the same villa, does everything he came to make sure that they see nothing scandalous.
Romania had it rough under its last communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and things are even rougher now. Before, their problems were oppression and poverty. Now, their problem is mostly poverty - and plenty of it. In this grim comedy (to call it a black comedy would be to paint too perky a picture of it), Vasile (Gheorghe Dinica)has a wife whom he's fond of, and a mistress, whom he's fonder of. He manages a nearly abandoned movie theater, and makes just about nothing doing it. When his wife announces she's pregnant, he nearly goes frantic trying to find money to get her an abortion. However, what truly sends him over the edge is when his mistress decides to become a prostitute because, after all, the money is good. These two situations send him straight to the loony bin, and when he gets out, he discovers that his wife has rented their apartment to pornographic filmmakers, and guess who's starring in them?
While working in Europe, Avram comes to realize that Italians are paying good money for trained dogs that can protect them from the waves of immigrants. That's Avram's big-time idea: he returns to Romania to start breeding watch dogs which he can later export to Italy. As it happens, he settles next to a camp of immigrants recently sent back from Rome. Thus, the Italian tension is willy-nilly reenacted on the banks of the Danube. Avram's life gets complicated. He starts having an affair with his own daughter in law, lands in conflict with his ex-immigrant neighbors and his life is literally under threat. The film ends with an unpredictable situation.
In 1930s Romania, a desperate gambler exploits an elderly man for casino luck, an act that triggers his own severe psychological undoing. Consumed by madness, he transfers his obsession to a painting that resembles his mother and forces his girlfriend to physically mimic the portrait, driving her to a suicide attempt. As she is committed to a sanatorium, his deranged mind completely detaches from reality against the backdrop of a decaying, pre-war fascist society.
A television cameraman and his subject find themselves in the middle of an intertwined professional and personal dilemma.
Jacob (Dorel Visan) is a gold miner who risks his life daily to support his wife, mother-in-law, and four children in this socio-political drama. Under the rule of an oppressive monarchy backed by military force, the miners often resort to stealing gold to compensate for their meager wages. Workers are subjected to strip searches and are forced to take laxatives by the often brutal guards and inspectors as they look for stolen gold, and Jacob raises his vocal objections over the treatment of his fellow workers.
Young Doina has a car accident. In intensive care, the doctor, Vali, calls her time of death but discovers that the child she was carrying is still alive. Wishing to save its life, the doctor puts the mother on artificial life support. Just then, Bebe, the supposed father of the unborn child, enters the scene. A former teacher and mountain climber, Bebe will soon fall in love with the doctor...
The best workers from various factories in the communist system are rewarded a cruise on the Danube. The people in charge fight for bureaucratic reasons while the young ones are looking for adventure.
Free adaptation of the book "The Pitesti phenomenon" by Paul Goma. The last days of World War II. All people resembling Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebbels, Bormann and other Nazi leaders are arrested and taken to a camp so that the real fascist criminals can be discovered and punished. Thus begins the long nightmare of these characters, who will suffer for unproven crimes. For a year they will live in total isolation from the rest of the world, living a hellish existence.