An Unforgettable Summer(RJ Retro)

While known more widely as British actor Kristin Scott Thomas’s international breakthrough, An Unforgettable Summer is also an important milestone for Romanian cinema. A beautiful film set amidst the brutal national wars in the Balkans in the 1920s, Lucian Pintilie’s adaptation of Petre Dumitriu’s autobiographical novel is a perfect showcase of a period drama serving as political allegory for the here and now. A liberal-minded military couple arrive at a rural outpost subjected to constant raids by Macedonian bandits. While Captain Dumitriu tries to maintain discipline among his bigoted underlings, his aristocratic wife Marie-Therese – an epitome of sophistication and a firm believer of human goodness – befriends the locals, including a group of innocent Bulgarian men being hostages at her barracks. But their kindness is destined to fail, and their descent into despair mirrors Pintilie’s over the xenophobia bubbling in post-communist Romania, and the deadly tribal warfare unfolding in neighbouring Yugoslavia. A tragedy laced with doses of comicality, An Unforgettable Summer still shines bright today, a timeless classic deserving of more exposure.

Screened with: It Can Pass through the Wall
Language: Romanian(English Subtitles)
Category: IIA
Duration: 17 Mins
Director: Radu Jude
Cast: Sofia Nicolaescu, Ion Arcudeanu, Marcel Horobet
Story: A young girl looks on as his grandfather plays cards with friends and talk about the death of a neighbour. She is scared as much as they are blasé:“You should fear the living, Sofia, not the dead.” An adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s In the Coach House.