Actiunea Zuzuc

the age of childhood. and a page from Romanian cinema. with the sensitivity, tricks, image and acting, theme and music of a period who wakes-up emotion, smiles and delicacy of old memories. a film who mixes family crisis and the universe of a child. Andrei Duban does a nice role who remains piece from a long chain of young actors Communism movies of genre. a film who seduce. and who remains charming against the time/fashion evolution. a refuge. for nostalgics. a different world slice for new generations. a decent film for many. adventures of Zuzuc are part from Racheta alba or Cireşarii family. and that is a real good fact. for understand the essence of Romanian society age.

It is the first time I see the film today, more than 30 years after its being produced. It certainly does not suit the memories I have from that time, but that is not the question. The film is neither a propaganda for the socialist way of life in the 80's, nor a fiction, based on pure imagination. It is the story of a 13 year old boy, whose parents are divorced, and for that he is rebellious. It is also the story of a young Militia officer who tries to intervene in the relationship between the boy and the rest of the world. And, unlike someone said before, it is nothing like propaganda; surprisingly, no word is said about Ceausescu! All in all, i liked the film, not considering it as a fairy tale but just a tale.

A fairy tale that gives an inside into the Romanian cultural perception of childhood. The child has skills far surpassing the abilities of a terrorized communist school boy. Yet this is a rudimentary depiction of what the adults would have expected a child to act.

The rest is just fluff to fill up the hour and a half. While the children act how the communist adults expected, the adults all act the way people in isolationist Romania perceived the Americans. The police officer is moving slowly wasting time to meticulously examine the details. The mother is sloppy somehow because she is divorced. The neighbor has lots of goods, yet he seem to be always home, but he lives in a popular building next to the railway.

For me it was a trip into the unpleasant stupidity of the good aspects of the communism. The unprotected rail where trains pass, and children play. And so on. Nice for a trip back time. Crappy for a film.

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a moral lesson. like many Comunist movies. a portrait of childhood. in few fake colors. nothing serious or real credible. only expression of propaganda for impose a form of perception of reality . so, a film for nostalgic public. because the script seems be a convention, the acting is try to save appearances, the social references are parts of Manichean vision of Comunist Party. and the childhood idea is massacred . a film who remands the spirit of a period. the presence of Andrei Duban in the lead role is one of the major proofs. Acțiunea Zuzuc remains only another exercise to impose social themes in the forms of politic. result - far to surprise. because to recreate the reality in fake terms is a strange action with not reasonable result.