Ambassadors Seek Country

In a devastating story rife with visual metaphors, Romanian director Mircea Daneliuc traces the slow mental disintegration of a confirmed gambler, using his disorder as an allusion to a greater national and social disorder. Set in the 1930s, the middle-class gambler meets an elderly man who seems to bring him good luck at the gaming tables. Rather than treasure his friendship and the good fortune it brings, the gambler takes advantage of his friend, and by his actions drives the man to suicide. Unable to reconcile his own mental demons, the gambler wanders through the house of his dead friend, and his experiences there only serve to unsettle his mind more and more and more. In the last reels of the film, the fantasies of the hero's deranged mind take over.

An old man and an old woman each have a girl. Influenced by old woaman, the old man compared to banish their home, and it goes in the world. Because of its virtues, she will gain from Holy Friday a box full of riches. Jealous, old woman's daughter and she is looking to get a gift from the Holy Friday, but because of its flaws will only get out of trouble.

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.

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...

For many years, three Romanian village boys, Stelica, Aurel and Mitu, have remained the closest of friends. In their youths, they planned to pursue careers as shepherds, but in time their individual paths diverged - leading Mitu into the military, Stelica into the local police force and Aurel into the employ of Maricel, a wealthy resident of the community. The men's worlds change forever when a newcomer arrives in the hamlet - a young woman named Lilica, accompanied by Maricel. She's toting two trucks full of Dutch chickens with her, which inadvertently spreads the bird flu to much of the local populace. The boys, however, soon realize how they can ingeniously turn this potential crisis into a solid profit-making venture for themselves.

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.

The plot centers on the cameraman Nelu - played by Daneliuc - and television reporter Luiza (Gina Patrichi), who are emotionally involved and are interviewing people caught travelling by train without tickets. Daneliuc is one of the first directors to have used direct sound, recording entire scenes and then mixing them with post-synchronized ones.

Savu and Panait, two drivers working for a firm of construction and assembly must ensure the movement of a giant machine. Along the way, she meets Miriam, a young gone to meet his fiance even transport your destination. Identity documents and stolen his train ticket. The two drivers decide to give her journey. After a night in a motel, drivers have an argument that is not foreign to the presence of Mary. For their silence, Savu decides to disembark. Not long after, overcome by remorse, turn back looking for her and thus reach his village which had left years ago. Here, Maria discovers drama of the human soul, wounded by an unhappy marriage. Arriving at your destination, are the husband of Mary is already married two months. Two men and a woman on the road to return, beyond sadness after a ravishing experience.

An eclectic film, in which suspense and cynicism sometimes meet the grotesque, "Back and forth" reminds, in many ways, the future masterpiece, "Cruise" (1981), directed by Mircea Daneliuc. Placed on the water's edge, where several characters sit with their bellies in the sun and when they talk about what they want and what they don't want, when they keep quiet, "Back and forth" is the graduation film of one of the legendary filmmakers of national cinema.