Wie ich das Ende der Welt erlebte

I have just seen this movie and I loved it. Maybe for the little boy who plays his role very well, maybe for the strange relationship that Eva has with either guys, but especially for how the director managed to capture the communist era in every aspect of the movie. Romanians may understand this better. The revolution took place almost 17 years ago, a new regime was installed since then and almost everything has changed. But this movie brings back even the smallest detail, from the clothes that students wore, music they listened to, even haircuts they had, to the state of the streets, houses, cars. It's amazing, but I had the strong impression that the movie was made many years ago. I would recommend this movie to all Romanians because, in a small detail, it gives a different perspective about the revolution. But also, non-Romanians should watch it just to see how difficult times we have been through.

It's an excellent movie but unfortunately it's hard to understand this movie unless u are Romanian and u lived in Romania during the communist era. I realize there were some scenes that were quite tricky for non-Romanians and the movie was full of symbols that were quite difficult to follow but for Romanian people were full of significance. The music is as well full of significance for people who grew up in the communist time. Maybe non-Romanian people will only see how Romanian during that communist era lived without power, out of running water and out of food but the film is a little bit more than that....maybe after seeing this movie u can get a little understanding about what does it mean to live in a communist country. Maybe the director is young and quite unexperienced but I think it's a really interesting movie to be seen and I definitely recommend it.

A trip in memory. A story about an age and about an era. Only character of this movie is Ceausescu. And his presence in ours souls. At a first view is a combination Chagall-Blecher. A page of a old book. A yellow image. But the Romania of 1989 is the Romania of 2006, too. Same words, same dreams, same facts are the pieces of our life. To escape, to have, to be are the problems of everyday. So... . The extraordinary talent of Catalin Mitulescu is the result of a long clear deep observation of the pictures of present Romania. In this film is not the testimony of a communism's drop, a tale about love, absurd, lies and honor. It is a chronicle, a gorgeous chronicle about Revolution, Piata Universitatii, Iliescu regime, about Miron Cosma and the empty hope, about condition of Romanians, ever strange, ever cold. Lalalilu is our conscience. Ours jokes, patience, wait are the fruits of his desire to understand. "Our country is our country". It is possible a better definition of our condition?

I have seen this movie recently, and it wasn't bad. I was amused by some of the comments made on this site about the movie, like the one disappointed viewer that said "I'm not a fan of Balkan or gypsy music and especially not a fan of national anthems". From some of the comments you would think this movie was a musical. No, it contains very little music, and it is often obligatory to sing the national anthem at school, especially during communism, so it is not something you like or no, it is something that you do.

I understand that the title may be misleading, that one may expect something else, and especially if you are not Romanian, you may not "feel" the movie very well. One viewer that posted a comment said he was confused about the story line, that there was no plot, but only events and people that didn't make sense. I found the story line quite simple, and I found the so called mystery of it to be necessary. It made everything seem as if it was somebody's experience and not real events. I don't know how others found the camera work, some complained that there were objects in front of the camera that seemed carelessly done. I thought the camera work was like that on purpose. Again, for me, it was as if somebody was observing all this in a certain way, and thus the camera tried to adjust to it, to make it more into an experience rather than a clear cut picture. I expected myself the movie to be more about the actual revolution. However, this movie is not about the Romanian revolution as the events of the story only culminate in the revolution at the very end of the movie. The end of the world rather, contains of months that were spend before the revolution, and I think captures well the hopelessness of everything, and the feelings that something is about to come to an end, to change somehow. Thus, those sad months are the so called end of the world, and the end of the movie is a new start.

Last thing to mention was also that this movie does not offer a global view of Romania or of Bucharest or the Romanian Revolution. The story only centers around one family, and their situation, fears, friends, etc. Thus, restricting the story to such a small scale might make viewing harder especially for non-Romanians. Even for some Romanians it may seem pointless to watch this family for the duration of the movie. However, for others like myself, you may find that the story was nicely told, the characters were well portrayed and that the movie was well done. One can argue that it is not perfect, and that it could have been this and that, but generally I thought it was very nice to see.

I've been trying to watch all Romanian films of late, although without much success. Some are just too ludicrous and others simply can't arouse any interest on my behalf.

I'd seen Trafic from Mitulescu, a slice of life piece from the busy happenings of Bucharest, which was a celebrated achievement of Romanian cinema at that time - with some merit. Now, "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii" is, firstly, a film with a striking title that can lead you on - erroneously. Going beyond the metaphor, I guess you can accept it as what the end of communism symbolized: the end of an era.

The film itself is about a young girl, Eva, (very well played by D. Petre) who is not only passing through the usual problems which come with adolescence, but who must also bear the weight of communism and its effects on her shoulders. I myself saw in her a prototype of the modern woman, the one who wants to think for herself and act as she deems is correct (but who also understands the importance of sacrificing herself at times), and all this burden of age and political restraints are fantastically mirrored on D. Petre's face. However, the film doesn't really go far beyond illustrating the last segment of the Ceausescu era - the fear, the hate, the desire to flee. While Eva's constant struggle, between responsibility (family) and rebellion, does deliver a certain dose of tension and dynamics, the film felt unsatisfying in the end.

What I'm referring to is that feeling you expect to encounter after a rather warm film about a different kind of childhood with a rather different sort of dreams: that overwhelming experience of fulfillment - both what the characters are concerned and the audience. So while "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii" has its good moments and conveys a very true perspective of those days, it simply did not satisfy me. Maybe it's the fact that I "missed out" on the era and, consequently, can't truly understand them. But what I felt was real enough for me, so the problem must lie within the story.