Neidentificat
Neznámý
Directed by:
Bogdan George ApetriCinematography:
Oleg MutuCast:
Bogdan Farcaș, Dragoș Dumitru, Vasile Muraru, Emanuel Pârvu, Olimpia Malai, Ion Bechet, Ovidiu Crisan, Kira Hagi, Valentin Popescu, Ioana BugarinVOD (1)
Plots(1)
Despite growing debts and an entangled personal life, Florin Iespas — a police detective in a small northern Romanian city — is determined to solve a case no one seems to care about. Ordered to put down the file, Florin continues his off-the-record investigations, soon turning up a strong lead for two hotel fires that resulted in several deaths. The suspect is a security guard of Roma descent, but he denies everything. Faced with the refusal of the police chief to support his inquiry, the mistrust of his colleagues, and his own inner demons, Florin is forced to take extraordinary measures. Under the appearance of a sharp, tightly woven detective movie, the film is a story that explores pervasive issues in the law enforcement system: power, abuse, sexism, masculinity and prejudice. (Film Movement)
(more)Reviews (2)
A variation on film noir in the Romanian New Wave mode, so it's incredibly slow (but not melancholy), visually ugly, and unfulfilling until its finale, while still trying to both preserve and paraphrase the rules of the genre. The problem for many may be that we don't actually know the purpose of any of the scenes until the end of the film, and they can't even be enjoyed individually as they are very procedural and inelegantly shot, making them impossible to succumb to visually. When it clicks at the end, each scene suddenly makes sense and it's just fun to think about and realize the roles of each situation in the story (the piano playing, the gas station), but again, there's no need to celebrate the script because it's not that clever, it's just written in reverse. But for the patient quiet of the forest solitude, it's actually quite an appealing twist on the crime genre that I somehow strangely enjoyed watching.
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I wouldn't even mind the slower pace of Unknown if the main character of the story wasn't so terribly unlikeable, either in his behavior, habits or appearance. At least the plot is good and quite interestingly constructed. However, I can't shake the impression that the movie only skims the surface. What about the initial storyline about the two hotel fires that fizzled out into nothing? And some other topics raised remained unresolved or were only hinted at. (55%)
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