FanFare

[TRAILER] Between 1993 and 1999, one man robbed 29 financial institutions in Budapest. Banks, post offices and even travel agencies fell victim to his crime spree. The police had no leads and no hope of finding him during his six-year stint. The only clue left behind at the crime scenes was the distinct aroma of whiskey. Never physically harming anyone, many began to eagerly follow his escapades through the media. A Transylvanian immigrant, who also happened to be a goalie for one of the city’s largest hockey teams, named Attila Ambrus, was finally identified as the “Whiskey Bandit.” The police had finally captured him… or so they thought. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jan 12, 2024 - 6 comments

When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past (Demián Bichir) and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows (Taissa Farmiga) are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in The Conjuring 2 as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 1, 2023 - 4 comments

Mara, a Romanian nurse, has married one of her patients. She is waiting for US citizenship and is being blackmailed for an alleged sham marriage. She is on her own. Her husband does not help her. Warning: this movie will make you pray for an apocalypse. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Apr 27, 2023 - 1 comment

Nazi captain Klaus Woermann (Jürgen Prochnow) and his soldiers take over an ancient Romanian fortress that seems to have been built not to keep people out, but to keep something in. As mysterious forces begin killing off his men, Woermann's commanding officer Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne) demands answers. The nearby village's priest (Robert Prosky) suggests they retrieve Jewish scholar Theodore Cuza (Ian McKellen) and his daughter Eva (Alberta Watson) from a nearby concentration camp to see if they can uncover the keep's secrets. Meanwhile, an ominous stranger (Scott Glenn) circles and waits. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jan 4, 2023 - 6 comments

Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure. A satirical comedy-drama from acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 22, 2022 - 5 comments

Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
posted by DirtyOldTown on Feb 15, 2022 - 1 comment

The story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote chalk graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police. Radu Jude's film is a bold hybrid, combining archive documentary with a highly theatrical staging of a ‘documentary play’ by Gianina Carbunariu. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 17, 2021 - 4 comments

After a tragic fire in the Romanian club "Colectiv" in 2015, burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening, and the resulting public outrage topples the government. This documentary follows the investigative journalists (from a sports daily) and a young pro tem Health Minister as they work to uncover fraud and reform the health care system, even a little bit. [more inside]
posted by fleacircus on Feb 5, 2021 - 1 comment

When old Mr. Lazarescu falls ill and needs medical treatment, but modern life has ways of ignoring the old, the sick, and the poor. It will take him all night to die, if anyone is even paying any attention. A dark comedy from Romania. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 7, 2018 - 4 comments

Romeo Aldea is a doctor who regrets having settled in his native Romania, a country still teeming with corruption and back dealings. He channels his ambitions for a better life into his teenage daughter, Eliza, who is just one exam away from securing a scholarship to a prestigious British university. But when Eliza is attacked on the eve of her test, endangering her ability to pass, Romeo takes matters into his own hands to ensure her success. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 7, 2018 - 4 comments

Romania, 1987, the brutal Ceausescu communist regime is in place; birth control is illegal and abortion is a crime punishable by death. Gabita is almost five months into an unwanted pregnancy and in meek desperation turns to her friend and roommate, Otilia for help in organizing an illegal termination. Unfortunate circumstances force the two women to use an unwanted male abortionist, Bebe. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 7, 2018 - 7 comments

In mid-1980s Romania, under the nose of the Securitate, Ceaușescu’s secret police, thousands of Hollywood films were smuggled into the country by an underground operative named Zamfir, and they were all covertly dubbed by Irina Nistor, a courageous translator whose distinct voice captivated the nation and became a symbol of freedom. Chuck Norris vs. Communism is a documentary, a thriller, and a comedy.
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jul 9, 2018 - 9 comments

The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final begins Saturday! May 13th! at 2100 CEST / 3:00pm Eastern! with results announced usually between 6-630pm Eastern! Can you tell I am excite! Most of the world can watch via the main Eurovision YouTube channel. Fans located in the US can tune their TVs to LOGO or computing devices to LogoTV.com, where the show will be co-hosted by Ross Mathews and Michelle Visage of "Rupaul's Drag Race" fame. Other options for following the action include accessing the main Eurovision stream on YouTube using a VPN, or using the delightfully Swedish feed from SVT (co-hosted, although probably in Swedish, by 2015 winner Måns Zelmerlöw). [more inside]
posted by zebra on May 12, 2017 - 577 comments

Semifinal 2 of the 2017 contest begins Thursday, May 11th, at 2100 CEST / 3:00pm Eastern, with results announced ~2 hours later. Most of the world can watch via the main Eurovision YouTube channel. Fans located in the US, Canada, and Brazil have to deal with geoblocking. Use a VPN with endpoints outside the US to access the stream on YouTube, or use the delightfully Swedish feed from SVT. [more inside]
posted by zebra on May 10, 2017 - 172 comments

Costi is a family man whose cash-strapped neighbor makes him an intriguing proposition: help him find the fortune reportedly buried somewhere on the grounds of his family's country home and split the profits. Romanian with English subtitles, currently on Netflix. [more inside]
posted by fleacircus on Apr 25, 2017 - 1 comment

It's time for the next round of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest! Semifinal 2 begins at 2100 CET / 3pm Eastern / 12pm Pacific. As before, the live stream will be available via the Eurovision website. Viewers located outside the US can also watch via YouTube. Thanks to LOGO TV's contract to broadcast Saturday's Grand Final, the semifinal rounds are not available to viewers in the US via YouTube, and the Eurovision.tv stream is relatively low quality. One freely available (no VPNs necessary!) and high-quality source is the Swedish broadcaster, SVT. This is probably the correct link for today's stream. In case it's not, check the SVT Play home page. [more inside]
posted by zebra on May 12, 2016 - 11 comments