Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth

Black and white, 35mm
Romania, 2001, 93 min
Section: Horizons - Awarded Films

Synopsis

Someone who kills animals is a butcher; someone who kills people is a murderer. Dumitru is both. He’s forty and has just been released from prison. On his way home his life falls back into the same vicious pattern – a game of cards with a group of Romanies gets a bit out of hand and Dumitru kills again. But it seems that this time he’s got away with it. A young wife is waiting for him at home. She’s pregnant. Dumitru is shocked to learn that the father is his own brother – and what’s worse, he raped his wife. In a blind jealous rage for revenge he kills again. . . . One tragedy leads to another. Dumitru becomes a serial killer, and life becomes unbearable. He longs for death but finds that he cannot die. God has sentenced him to live. . . . Shot in earthy sepia tones, this harsh film commands attention for its remarkable camerawork which provides a necessary visual brutality; it also features a remarkable performance by Dan Condurache as Dumitru. The film received the top honour, the prestigious Tiger, at this year’s Rotterdam festival.

About the director

Sinisa Dragin (b. 1960, Kula, Yugoslavia) graduated in economics before studying film at the Academy of Film and Drama in Bucharest in 1991. He worked as a cameraman for Reuters, and then in 1994 shot a documentary short, The Sorrow of Black Gold. A year later he came out with the dramatic short The Rain, and another documentary Shining is the Sun Over Tichilesti. His first feature came in 1998, Long Journey by Train; the noteworthy Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth is his second feature film.