12:08 East of Bucharest

Colour, 35 mm
Romania, 2006, 89 min
Section: East of the West - Films in Competition

Synopsis

On 22 December 1989 the whole country watched a live television broadcast of an incensed crowd forcing the Romanian dictator Ceauşescu to flee Bucharest in a helicopter. In a peaceful small town east of the capital, sixteen years after this historic day, the owner of a local television station invites two guests onto his talk show to share their memories of that celebrated revolutionary time. One of them is an old pensioner and occasional Santa Claus, the other is a history teacher whose entire salary has been swallowed up by his alcohol debts. Together, they reminisce about the day when everyone was shouting “Down with Ceauşescu!”. But then a viewer rings up and questions the studio guests’ legitimacy as proclaimed heroes: Weren’t they, in fact, just boozing in a bar that day, or doing the Christmas rounds instead of taking to the streets like everyone else?

About the director

Corneliu Porumboiu (b. 1975, Vaslui, Romania) graduated in 2003 from the University of Dramatic Art and Film in Bucharest. His short films Gone with the Wine (2002) and A Trip to the City (2003), and the medium-length Livius’ Dream (2003), about the ban on abortions during Ceauşescu’s regime, set against the story of a young man, his desires and truth, brought him several international awards, including the Cinéfondation Award in Cannes in 2004. 12:08 East of Bucharest is his feature-length debut and won the Golden Camera award at Cannes this year.