Review: Tales From The Golden Age

Award winning Director Christian Mungiu brought together four other fledgling Romanian directors to direct five short films depicting life during Romania in the 1980s.  Communist propaganda referred to the days of their rule as "The Golden Age".  The five films each look at "legends" of the time in typically a humorous way.  Apparently, there is a sixth film and these are being released as two separate films in Romania.  I'm guessing they selected five of the six as a single film for the festival.

Each of the five that we saw told the story of a "legend" of the time.

• The opening tale was that of a small town nervously preparing for the arrival of communist party officials, which ends with everyone getting drunk and then getting on a carnival ride with swings.  Unfortunately, they forgot to leave somebody off the ride to stop it and simply had to wait for it to run out of gas.
• In a "forest for the trees" moment, state officials insist that alterations are made to a photograph before the newspaper can print it, but wind up needing an emergency recall of the morning edition.
• A family obtains a (live) pig through questionable means and, not wanting to draw attention of the neighbors, attempts to kill it via home made gas chamber, with somewhat predictable results.
• A man delivering truckloads of chickens finds a way to make a little extra by hocking their eggs part way through his route.
• A man introduces a young woman to a low stakes confidence scheme - tricking residents of apartment buildings into giving them returnable bottles, and then cashing them in.

The common theme of all the stories is the absurdity of the reality created by the communist government of the time.  This creates ample room for laughs and the Romanians cash in on it often.  There are some lulls here and there, though I'm sure some humor was lost on me just due to my lack of knowledge about their culture.  My imdb rating: 6/10.