The approach writer/director Ilinca Calugareanu takes is to interview people who illicitly watched these videos in makeshift home cinemas, and weave their memories into a dramatisation of how these tiny acts of rebellion came about, structuring things so it builds up to a big laugh and then undercuts it with a dose of the oppressive reality of Ceausescu’s Romania. This shift in dynamics is used sparingly but it’s incredibly effective. What the film gets across better than anything is the wide-eyed enthusiasm that these films produced in the young, film-starved audiences. Not to criticise any of the writers on this site, but we’re never going to be able to convey the same sense of wonder over seeing Chuck Norris fighting a rat in Missing In Action 2, because it seems doubtful any of us could muster the same level of reverence, even if we recognise the reactions as similar to our own. It’s not merely the near mythical heroism of action stars that made an impact: the amount of food in shops (Romania experienced shortages in the 80s due to rationing and austerity policies), the sheen of American city buildings contrasting with the Brutalist architecture behind the Iron Curtain. Chuck Norris and Rocky occur as frequent touchstones and heroic influences, but films such as Jesus Of Nazareth were also big deals due to the state oppression religion in a strongly Orthodox country. If the film has a failing, it’s in its claims that these films helped ferment the Romanian Revolution of 1989, but not actually showing any explicit evidence that this is the case. In its second half especially the viewer is occasionally left to extrapolate a bigger picture, which works for the most part but feels problematic when it undercuts one of the main aspects of the documentary’s conclusion. Even so, if you’ve read this review suckered in by the title, it’s worth investigating this documentary in September when it comes out in the UK. It’s a different but complementary perspective on the films we love and, in many cases, grew up with, as well as a social history lesson you’re unlikely to be familiar with. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
