‘The New Year That Never Came’: Venice Review

Dir/scr: Bogdan Mureşanu. Romania/Serbia. 2024. 138mins.

Romania, a couple of days earlier than Christmas in 1989, and the Nicolae Ceausescu regime is in its loss of life throes. Not that the unusual individuals of Bucharest realize it – the information of an rebellion within the metropolis of Timisoara and the following bloodbath of protestors by authorities forces is suppressed and sanitised, and a paralysing concern of the dictatorship nonetheless prevents many from talking out in opposition to it. Together with his achieved characteristic debut, Bogdan Mureşanu views a pivotal second in Romanian historical past – the autumn of the Ceausescu regime – via the eyes and the interconnected tales of six unusual individuals. It’s a assured and, at occasions, savagely humorous work which, whereas a little bit over-long, builds to a blisteringly highly effective conclusion.

Captures the exhilarating impression of historical past within the making

Having beforehand labored in promoting and literature, Mureşanu pivoted to filmmaking in 2012 with the quick movie Half Shaved; a latter quick, 2018’s The Christmas Reward, received quite a few prizes together with Greatest Quick Movie on the European Movie Awards. That work, which tells of a father’s consternation when he discovers that his son’s letter to Santa lists his Dad’s Christmas want as “the loss of life of Uncle Nic” (a lower than affectionate nickname for Ceausescu), is integrated as one of many strands on this characteristic. The New Yr That By no means Got here ought to take pleasure in a heat reception at festivals going ahead, and will discover a house with arthouse distributors or a curated streaming platform. And in author and director Mureşanu, it pronounces a notable new expertise in Romanian cinema.

Mureşanu’s imaginative and prescient for the image is clear from the outset. The movie is shot in a boxy 4:3 side ratio, each to stress the airless, oppressive qualities of life below the regime and as a nod to the tv broadcasts of the period – a characteristic of one of many story strands. Prying handheld cameras provides to the nerviness of the environment – these are all characters, we sense, who’re accustomed to being spied upon. The selection of colors additionally feels in tune with the interval; for a lot of the movie there’s a palette of murky, unpromising greys and watery greens punctuated by the lacklustre sparkle of communist Christmas decorations.

Towards this backdrop, a seemingly random group of individuals unwittingly strategy what is going to change into probably the most momentous day of their lives. Gelu (Adrian Vancica), the daddy from The Christmas Reward, is a manufacturing unit employee who’s instructed by his boss to drive to an tackle and assist transfer some furnishings. There he meets Margareta (Emilia Dobrin), a lady whose home, like the remainder of the neighbourhood, is scheduled for demolition. She’s grieving for the lack of her house and unimpressed by the brand new condo that her son, Ionut (Iulian Postelnicu) has discovered for her.

A secret policeman, Ionut is alert for “hostile actions and hateful inscriptions” on the native college. Laurentiu (Andrei Miercure), a lanky scholar with a haphazard plan of escaping throughout the Danube to Yugoslavia, is a determine of curiosity for Ionut following his involvement in a satirical comedy play. Laurentiu’s father Stefan (Mihai Calin) is the harried stage supervisor on the tv station, the place the lead actress in a pre-recorded, fervently patriotic New Yr’s Particular has simply defected and her close-ups should be re-recorded with a much less politically poisonous look-alike performer. That’s the place theatre actress Florina (Nicoleta Hancu) is available in. However since she is frantically attempting to contact her ex-boyfriend in Timisoara, Florina just isn’t inclined to pay tribute on digicam to Ceausescu as “probably the most beloved son of the individuals”.

There’s quite a bit happening, and initially, the movie coasts a little bit, earlier than regularly choosing up momentum. However a close to 20-minute ultimate sequence, set to Ravel’s Bolero, builds to an explosive crescendo, seamlessly mixing archive footage into the motion and capturing the exhilarating impression of historical past within the making.