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This film will probably not be remembered in 10 years but it does not matter as it's not meant to be a 7th art masterpiece. The plot is simple but interesting, based on two facts: - the difficulty for French farmers to find spouses willing to settle in a farm; - the difficulty for young Romanians to get a decent job in their own country;

A market-oriented solution would be to bring together the offer and the demand. And it's exactly what the dating company is doing. The problem is that human beings, unlike goods, have feelings: - it's hard for a French farmer to understand a girl from Romania; - it's hard for a Romanian girl to leave her country and her past behind.

It's a nice reminder to those criticizing immigrants that it's always a last-resort and heart-breaking solution to move away from home in search for better conditions.

Two great actors: Michel Blanc and Medeea Constantinescu.

Last but not least, life in Romania is far from being as dull as the film pretends.

This film, known as "Satra" - a group of wandering gypsies - to the Romanians is definitely worth viewing. Based on a short novel by Gorki, it gives a snapshot of Gypsy life in the Far-Eastern part of the Habsburg Empire. Nevertheless, the film is a bit diminished by its 1970s-Soviet origin: many badly played-back songs, a soundtrack that tends to give a hippy-70s flavors to the Gypsy songs. I'm not so enthusiastic about the work of the composer who rather spoiled the Gypsy music than improved it. In this domain, Goran Bregovici keeps the lead. The RUSCICO DVD edition includes some interesting bonus though not very enlightening. Notice that the script was refused by the Moldovan Film Studios so that it was shot by the Moscow film studios.

The film has been awarded a Prize in the "Un certain regard" category during the 2005 Cannes Festival. It is indeed a certain look at the Romanian contemporary society that Cristi Puiu proposes here. It would made an excellent documentary on the current and depressing state of the the Romanian medical system and medical staff psyche. Having lived in Romania, long enough I can assure you, the movie really sticks to the reality. Acting is excellent. Just two complaints from my behalf. The topic is depressing enough and Romania's image abroad bad enough not to overemphasize it by the dim and dull lightning of the scenes. Two hours and a half might be a bit challenging for the audience, even in Romania (I've seen Romanian viewers walking out of the theater). Two hours would have been enough to get the message and the feel of it.

This movie, as well as others from Nicolae Margineanu is now available on DVD with subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish. Look for Ager-film Editions in the web. It's seldom enough for Romanian films to be worth mentioning. Shot a year after the famous "Pandureanca", we notice a bit of the same mysterious atmosphere produced by awesome landscapes and silent looks. Some of the landscapes shown in this film are now endangered by the project of a Canada-based mining company which projects to create there the largest open-air gold-mine in Europe. Fears for the ecological balance of the whole region is big. Gold still drives people crazy, thus making the film of a burning actuality.

This a western, a true western: cowboys, whisky, Colts, Bad-lands-like landscapes and so one. The movie was entirely shot in Romania, reflecting the great variety of landscapes this country has. All the actors are famous Romanian ones and they speak a quite decent English during 70% of the movie!!! Dialogs remember a bit the ones in the American 1940s westerns.

The movie tells the story of three Romanian brothers (from Transylvania actually) who, having crossed Europe and the Atlantic, are trying to settle in the US Great Plains. One is hunting down "wanted"-criminals to finance the ranch (or rather a house falling apart) his younger brother bought. The younger brother gets married to an American girl whereas the older one is hanging around with the ranch neighbors, ironically a Hungarian family from Transylvania.

But, the local badman wants to get the three brother's ranch as he knows there is some oil lying underneath. Hence...

Sergiu Niculescu is indeed quite a famous Romanian director. He actually got most of his fame by shooting war movies during the Ceaucescu area and he seems to have been quite good at it. He is now a controversial old man, a Senator and his word is key in funding Romanian movies with public money.

In Orient Express his character is played by two actors (himself) and Dan Bitman (the younger character) who is a well-know rock-star in Romania. The all plot is just an amazing example of self-praise and narcissism. No less than 4 women are actually in love with the Niculescu-character. The dialogs and shooting are flat and static. Barely any camera moves except for one or two traveling.

The film fails to capture the audience. When I watched it, the public laugh during the most pathetic/romantic moments...

The film recalls the spirit of a Niculescu earlier film: Ultima Noapte de Dragoste, shot in 1979.

The only interesting part is the lovely Miclauseni castle located closed to Iasi (North-Est Romania) where part of the movie has been shot.