Directed by Ruxandra Ghițescu, drama, 115 min, eng subtitles, 16+
Written by Ruxandra Ghițescu
With Mihaela Sîrbu, Marc Titieni, Ioana Bugarin, Ioana Flora, Adrian Titieni
Not your usual coming of age story.
A 17-year-old going by the nickname of Otto, guitarist in the punk band of his high school, finds himself entangled in the social services’ investigation into his girlfriend’s suicide. Relations with his family, with the social worker assigned to the case, with his fellow band members - and not just those – explode as our anti-hero attempts to make sense of what has happened, of his role therein and of his own life, while he keeps editing video footage of his beautiful and tormented Laura. Between the true poetry of those scenes, and shoulder-camera travels with Otto through his troubled days and nights, the youngster struggling to face others’ expectations of him is the protagonist of this movie.
With a panoply of prizes for her short films, Ruxandra Ghitescu assembled a mainly feminine team and a splendid cast for this feature film debut. She succeeded in making the psychology of the characters become alive. Audiences leave with the sense that: “This could happen to you”.