"The New Year That Never Came": A Tragi-Comic Chronicle of the Last Days of the Ceauşescu Regime

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In Bucharest, the end-of-year holidays are approaching, with the still-elusive beginnings of the Romanian revolution, which will take place on Christmas Eve. It's a bit like "Life is Beautiful." Capra's story in reverse: the vast majority of Romanians believe they are living in a lasting hell, and even though the devil's days are numbered, he still hides in the details. A worker panics when he learns that his son has written an ultra-compromising letter to Santa Claus (the child asks for the scalp of that "old bastard Nicolae" , in accordance with his dear father's wish); a fashionable actress sinks into the same disarray, forcibly cast to record a propaganda film, while the inconsolable mother of an apparatchik is forced to leave her house to satisfy Ceauşescu's delusion of real estate renovation. The strength of Bogdan Mureşanu's film? Using this mixture of anger and innocence to serve a "counter-tragedy" full of humor and vigor.

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