"Occident" is a bitter comedy about the people who want to emigrate from Romania, and about those who stay behind. The movie has a rich, interesting structure: there are three different stories - a weeklong in the film - that cross, interconnect and happen in the same period. The characters influence each others lives, sometimes even without knowing. Main characters from one story become secondary characters in another story. At the same time, scenes from the first part of the movie bring unexpected facts when seen the second or the third time. The stories do not have just one ending: the first story ends in each of the third parts in a different point, suggesting radically different solutions for the characters. The way in which the director fits time and links events together often produces thematically unexpected results.
Jan
A 20 year class reunion, at Snagov, in a villa that belonged to Ceaușescu and now melongs to a media magnate. The reunion is hijacked by a magnatețs son, who makes it into a talk show, in which he humiliates an expat.
Depicts Romania during World War II, focusing on the Royal Coup that toppled Ion Antonescu, the Axis-allied Conducător and authoritarian Prime Minister. Focused around the August 23rd 1944 coup against Marshal Antonescu, the movie also tackles other topics from the same era such as the Iron Guard rebellion and the execution of political leaders by communists.
Vanghelie
The topic of the film points out the condition of an intellectual in time of totalitarian dictatorship, which subjugated an island from where you can not run. The only alternative is collaborating with power and internment in a rehabilitation institute. A famous writer returns to his homeland to try to confront the terror of an oppressive regime, but he ends up being himself corrupted-thanks to the aberrant system.
Căpălău, a peasant in a village near Brăila, tries to keep up with the turns of life. Based on "Ningea în Bărăgan” novel by Fănuș Neagu.
Stoica
During the Romanian revolution in 1989, Pavel and Damian, two undercover officers of the Securitate secret service enter a building to search for shooters. They are followed by an amateur cameraman.
(voice)
An advanced spaceship called Delta is created to establish dialogue between intergalactic civilizations. Soon after an alien journalist boards the ship, she and the captain realize the AI that controls the ship can act on its own.
