Amintiri din Epoca de Aur (Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu & Ioana Uricaru, 2009)

Five directors each direct segments on urban myths related to goings-on in Ceaușescu's Romania. Each part of Tales from the Golden Age is a satirical snapshot of the cause-and-effect mayhem resulting from a simple slip: a harassed party photographer makes a mistake in a photo, a village's panicky preparations for an official visit go off the rails, a gluttonous policeman plans making a feast of a whole pig in the family flat. The tone, despite having five different directors behind it, is remarkably unanimous. If striving for comparisons, it could be said to approximate Kusturica crossed with Kieslowski, but it's less knockabout than the former without the sadness of the latter. It should really just be seen in its own right as a black comedy that has satisfying pay-offs in terms of real points to make about the absurdity of the system of the time, paced at regular intervals. A minor delight.

7/10