An Unforgettable Summer (1994)

Original title

Un été inoubliable

Directed by

Lucian Pintilie

Genre

drama film

Country

Romania, France

Runtime

1h 22m

Rated

15+

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 28 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1925, a Hungarian-born aristocrat moves with her Romanian army officer husband to a border region where ethnic tensions are boiling over. She tries to stop the execution of local villagers taken hostage by Romanian soldiers but fails. The film shows how nationalist violence and personal grudges tear apart a family.

tensemelancholicslow-burnbleakvisually lushunsettlingcerebralheavy

What happens

An Unforgettable Summer (French: Un été inoubliable; Romanian: O vară de neuitat) is a 1994 drama film directed and produced by Lucian Pintilie. A Romanian-French co-production based on a chapter from a novel by Petru Dumitriu, it stars Kristin Scott Thomas as Hungarian-born aristocrat Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy. Her marriage with Romanian Land Forces captain Petre Dumitriu brings her to Southern Dobruja (present-day northeastern Bulgaria), where they settle in 1925. There, she witnesses first-hand the violent clashes between, on one hand, the Greater Romanian administration, and, on the other, komitadji brigands of Macedonian origin and ethnic Bulgarian locals. The film shows her failed attempt to rescue Bulgarians held hostage by the Romanian soldiers, and who are destined for execution. An Unforgettable Summer also stars Claudiu Bleonț as Captain Dumitriu and Marcel Iureș as Ipsilanti, a general whose unsuccessful attempt to seduce Von Debretsy and the resulting grudge he holds against the couple account for Dumitriu's reassignment. Completed in the context of the Yugoslav wars, the film constitutes an investigation into the consequences of xenophobia and state-sanctioned repression, as well as an indictment of a failure in reaching out. It is thus often described as a verdict on the history of Romania, as well as on problems facing the Balkans at large, and occasionally described as a warning that violence could also erupt in a purely Romanian context. Released by MK2 Productions, An Unforgettable Summer was financed by the Council of Europe's Eurimages fund for continental cinema. In the United States and elsewhere, it was made available on limited release. Other actors credited in secondary roles include George Constantin as General Tchilibia, Răzvan Vasilescu as Colonel Turtureanu, Olga Tudorache as Madame Vorvoreanu, Cornel Scripcaru, Carmen Ungureanu, Dorina Lazăr, Mihai Constantin and Ioan Gyuri Pascu. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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