People say that reality overpasses fiction in all aspects. This movie, based in a true history, has the ability to reflect poverty and human degradation from a social and political perspective. Under what circumstances a woman becomes a prostitute? This history is one crude answer. Eastern Europe is suffering the effects of globalization and common population is paying a very high cost.
Maria, the name of the main character, is a common woman, married with a worker who used to be a working class hero. Because the acquisition from an American company, her husband lost his job and then misery starts. Social problems like alcoholism, gambling, family violence and prostitution are reflected with severity and even with humor. Director (Netzer) solved the plot very skillfully: present the situation as a reflect of an economical situation, not a moral or ethics issues. All problems are money related and its absence causes the overturning situations.
In a very beautiful sequence, María is in her house with her seven children. All of them are sleeping and she starts looking at the mirror. The oldest girl is looking at her. María opens her blouse and folds her skirt. She starts to look at her self as a prostitute, she decided in that exactly point to become one. Then, in another later sequence the oldest girl do exactly the same in front the mirror. Always is a crossing point and Netzer built the moment in a poetic way. Other excellent sequences occur when María is in front of the TV. The first time to see the results of a riot at the government palace (with a crude scene of a man lighting fire to him self), the second time watching her self when two prostitutes passed by and finally when her history is told to Rumania by the TV, when she realizes her present and probably her future. I liked the movie a lot and strongly recommend the audience to see it. Not everything in the plot is crude scenes and tears. Netzer includes a perfect character (Ion) to make us laugh and created perfect situations to combine drama with comedy.
No matter if the history took place in Rumania, could be applicable everywhere and we could find Marías in every city where poverty is real and overpasses the fiction by far. This is the kind of histories than make us think and consider other people's situations, the kind of movies that could shake our consciences and aware us about the "advantages" of the globalization. A must see movie.
