Dictate of Youth

A refreshing depiction of the personal, which necessarily connects with the political and (to some extent) overcomes it. An intimate narrative about the breakup of a young couple placed in an extracted fragment of history, which we follow and relive through the eyes of the main protagonist Ana. The director skilfully and deliberately subjugates the narrative to Ana’s point of view and movement, which the camera catches up to and pursues through each frame, thus always placing it in the foreground – substantively and formally. In a time of deadlock, when dictates are subordinated to communist leaders, the youth want to shape their future differently and dictate it in their own rhythm. Music that connects everyone, regardless of their situations and environments; its ban is like a ban on the meaning of existence. The music that the Metronom show and its host Cornel Chiriac bring from the supposedly free Europe to Romanian homes and its new generations beguiles everyone’s days in captivity.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!