Terminus Paradis

'How stultifyingly gloomy life was in Rumania under Ceausescu was shown by Pintilie in his heart-breaking tragedy Le chêne. >Vs>Terminus Paradis shows how little has improved. Pig farmer Mitou is sitting outside a bar in Bucharest and has eye contact with Norica. What starts as a stubble fire will gain the proportions of a firestorm that claims lives. Norica is already engaged, you see, to a disgusting sausage salesman who can guarantee a minimum of grubby affluence. Mitou has to go into military service; with his temperament that makes him a nasty enemy. With a stolen tank he shall try to cut his rival down to size. No army or punishment camp can stop him.The paradisaical dream of a desperado is placed by Pintilie in a national context of hopeless illusion. In this Rumania, one reprobate wants empty luxury, another hopes for a better life in America, most dream under the influence of vodka.' Pieter van Lierop, GPD