THE OAK

1988, one year before the fall of the Ceau.escu regime. Romania is sinking fast. The Bucarest teacher Nela, whose father recently died, finds a new job in the provinces. Stowing the paternal ashes in her luggage, she embarks on what becomes an infernal journey through an impoverished land on the brink of collapse. Nela encounters people whose desperation has made them ruthless, and the calamities keep on coming. In Mitica, a surgeon who saves her from being raped, she eventually meets a kindred spirit with whom she can brave the storm. Pintilie’s coal-black film is an impressive portrait of a society stripped bare of moral substance through decades of stagnation.