Libertate (Freedom) [2023]

 Revolutions, once shorn of the allure of romanticism, can be bloody, messy and grimy affairs, and that’s the first thing that one notices in Tudor Giurgiu’s thrilling film Libertate, which takes us right into its violent, chaotic and unpredictable midst. What one also notices is the director’s audacious gambit in filming with an absurdly large ensemble cast that must’ve necessitated meticulous orchestration while rendering the madness. In a country obsessed with episodes from the Ceausescu era, the dictator’s fall from power – the only one among the “Revolutions of 1989” that experienced violence – and its immediate aftermaths, it’s certainly not easy to find new stories; Giurgiu surprisingly succeeded in that. This ironically titled work – contrary to the rousing sentiments it alludes to, the film is anything but triumphal – chronicled the brutal confrontation that ensues during Ceausescu’s overthrow, followed by a period of absurdist stalemate, in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu. Little did police officer Viorel (Alex Calangiu) know, upon leaving for work on the fateful day of the uprising, that he'd barely survive by the skin of his neck and return after months in bizarre captivity. When shots are fired into protestors by unknown assailants, a vicious pandemonium takes the city to the brink of civil war, and pits four mutually hostile factions against each other – the army, police, secret service and civilians. The army eventually seizes the upper hand, and holds more than 500 people – belonging to the latter groups, with each accusing the other of being lackeys and terrorists – in an emptied swimming pool. The narrative shifted at a breakneck pace between diverse characters, interlocking verbal clashes and psychological duels, taking the film to a bleak anti-climactic finale.

Director: Tudor Giurgiu

Genre: Thriller/Historical Thriller

Language: Romanian

Country: Romania

The Pigeon Tunnel [2023]

 A meeting between renowned American documentarian Errol Morris – his examination of the slippery nature of truth, by sifting through deceptive non-truths, has been a running theme in his filmography, and most famously touched upon in his canonized work The Thin Blue Line – and celebrated British spy novelist David Cornwell – who, through his best-selling books pseudonymously written as John le Carré, had repeatedly delved into the subversion and obfuscation of truth – was, on paper, a match made in heaven. Furthermore, Cornwell sat for this rare interview just prior to his death on Morris’ behest, thus enabling this momentous rendezvous. However, for anyone who’s read le Carré’s enticing and engrossing memoir The Pigeon Tunnel, there was unfortunately nothing new in this partial transliteration of that marvellous volume. While the book, through droll irony, had audaciously cut across through myriad fascinating anecdotes from the writer’s eventful life, Morris probed predominantly into one specific aspect only, viz. Cornwell’s complex relationship with his father Ronnie – a compulsive career conman who was perennially on the run – which remained the great unresolved equation in his life. While that served as terrific material, made all the more arresting by his sardonic and surprisingly candid articulation of that difficult chapter from his life, Morris kept stopping short of provoking new memories and revelations beyond what Cornwell had already let loose in his memoir. While, in a captivating stylistic choice, the author’s responses were juxtaposed with footage from four highly reckoned adaptations (Martin Ritt’s haunting The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and the three acclaimed BBC miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley’s People and A Perfect Spy), dramatizations and overemphasis of the title’s meaning, however, felt tepid.

Director: Errol Morris

Genre: Documentary/Biopic

Language: English

Country: UK