Advertisement
Supported by
This month’s selections include a ’90s Indian tale, a Turkish noir film set in a zoo, a Romanian drama about provincial politics, and more.
By Devika Girish
Spread it in Ovid.
The central themes of “Men of Facts”: bureaucratic corruption; Political obscurity are staples of fashionable Romanian cinema. And yet, Paul Negoescu’s provincial black is decidedly unusual. This is partly due to the film’s tone, a dubious combination of deadpan irony and devastating ethical darkness. Then there’s the protagonist’s Unexpected Cuteness, Ilie (Iulian Postelnicu), a bored policeman from a small town on the border with Moldova.
At first, the story revolves around Ilie’s preference to retire and own a garden, an undeniable emotion that he seeks in the midst of the loneliness of his short life. Scenes of Ilie touching trees and hunting in the grass, extremely happy to believe in his coveted romance (much to the confusion of his new assistant, who has arrived from town), imbue “Men of Deeds” with a beautiful melancholy and languor. But that turns to terror when Ilie’s second-in-command goes rogue while investigating a bloody death and begins to uncover the putrid force at work just beneath the village’s captivating façade. The kind-hearted Ilie is shocked and called to action when destructive secrets come to light, and his modest dreams of rural happiness give way to a fatalistic sense of goal and duty.
Stream it on Netflix.
The sacred aura of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the huge tutoring industry that has grown up around those competitive public engineering schools has been fertile ground for film and television in India. There is something about millions of hopeful people who are chasing almost a dream. that lends itself to the screen. In 2009, “3 Idiots” became a global blockbuster with its tragicomic story of life in an engineering school, while streaming shows like “Laakhon Mein Ek” and “Kota Factory” represented a harrowing transition to maturity. age stories in personal exercise centers that exercise academics in the elusive art of passing the IIT’s frontal exam.
We are recovering the content of the article.
Please allow javascript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access. If you’re in Reader mode, log out and log in to your Times account or subscribe to the full Times.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access.
Are you already a subscriber? Log in.
Do you want all the Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement