FREE ON YOUTUBE Nesfarsit

Cristian Nemescu died during a traffic accident in Bucharest before he could finish California Dreaming - Nesfarsit. So here comes a fragment and yet we feel: A very big one! Nesfarsit also means "unfinished". A melancholic Culture Clash comedy, completely committed to the tradition of "Balkan cinema". We are in the hinterland of Romania at the time of the Kosovo war. NATO bombs the former Yugoslavia as a train with military freight is stopped in a Romanian village. Papers are missing and the local mayor (Ion Sapdaru) insists on keeping the bureaucratic order. Of course it is absurd what the Americans feel on their four-day break! The stationmaster (Razvan Vasilescu), on the other hand, has personal motives to stop the train... Sure, the 28-year-old director would have slimmed down his 155-minute work a bit. Maybe he would have worked out the melodrama even better in the comedy. But what we have is a brilliant "what if"! A funny and intellectual comedy about a miscommunication. Even more: We experience the dark past of Romania, but also the future - full of hope!