Reconstruction (2001)

Directed by

Irene Lusztig

Genre

mystery film

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary examines a bank heist in 1950s Romania. It focuses on the filmmaker's grandmother, the only woman involved in the crime. The film uses clips of a propaganda film that restaged the robbery.

investigativemelancholicreflectivehistoricalunsettlingslow-pacedcerebralsomber

What happens

Reconstruction is a 2001 documentary made by Irene Lusztig that investigates the Ioanid Gang bank heist committed in 1959 in Communist Romania. The film focuses on Monica Sevianu, Lusztig's grandmother, and the only female involved in the heist. The documentary gets its name from a propaganda film that was made by the Romanian government three years after the robbery was committed. The original Reconstruction was a strange blend of documentary and fiction, where the criminals played themselves in a crime-film whose plot was driven by clues that self-congratulatory detectives pieced together. The propaganda film was only screened to journalists and high-ranking Communist officials before being buried beneath government files. Lusztig managed to find a copy and incorporates clips into her documentary. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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