CLOSER TO THE MOON

Romania/USA, 2014, 115 minutes, Colour.
Mark Strong, Vera Farmiga, Harry Lloyd, Anton Lesser, Joe Armstrong, Christian Mc Kay, Alan Corduner.
Directed by Nae Canflin.

Closer to the Moon is Romanian film with an international cast, especially British.

The screenplay takes the audience back to 1959, the aftermath of Romania’s experience in World War II, the Resistance, especially with Jews prominent. With the imposition by the Soviet Union and Romania becoming a communist country, the Jews become less prominent. Some of them become dissidents – and of this film is about the action of the dissident group.

They affect a robbery which is filmed, the onlookers thinking it is genuine. However, they are arrested, interrogated and made to reenact the robbery as a propaganda film. A young man observing the first filming becomes a significant cameraman.

However, while the Communist authority is rather fatuous, he nevertheless has authority and there are dire results for the dissidents.

An offbeat look at and memories of Romania and the Communist domination.

1. The title, the ending, the images of space, the discussions of space exploration at the end of the 1950s? Postwar?

2. An international production, the writer-director and the Romanian background? The international cast, the range, the British members of the cast?

3. Audience knowledge of Romania, during World War II, the war experience, the Russians coming, the Communist regime, the resistance during the war, the Jews as members of the resistance? The Soviet empire? The transition from the 1940s to the 1950s? The Jews and their influence being lessened, being ousted? The nature of Communist society, socialism, the authorities, the role of the police, totalitarian obedience, 1950s style? The politics? The film, the police? The attitude towards traitors, the authorities, executions?

4. 1959, the atmosphere of Bucharest, the city? Drab? Homes and shops, the streets? The making of the film, the robbery, being staged, everybody watching, Virgil and his interest?

5. Virgil, his job, photography, asked to do some work, helping the director? Getting the job for the second film?

6. The director, his role with the films, drinking? The producer? The authorities?

7. The political background, the politicians, ambitions, figures of ridicule? The end, dominance and their winning?

8. The old resistance group, their work in the past, the Jewish background, as individuals, as a group?

9. The variety of personalities, Max and his leadership, Alice and the woman’s role, family, son? The teacher? The other members of the group?

10. The robbery, the film, the staging? The effect? Asked to restage it for the propaganda film? Re-enactment, the car, the plan, the escape?

11. The plan to get away, the failure, the arrests, the interrogations? The buildup to the executions?

12. Captured, the treatment, in prison, the interviews, the role of the authorities? The firing squad, rejecting blindfolds? Alice not being executed?

13. The sequence of the young Jewish men, the ritual of the dance, solemnity, traditions – and being intercut with the executions?

14. Alice, the boy, her surviving, the aftermath?

15. A 21st-century perspective on this period of Romanian history?