Child’s Pose · Films · SUBTITLE European Film Festival, Kilkenny

Child’s Pose Dir. Calin Peter Netzer

Romania

112 mins

2013

DVD

Drama

Colour

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Director: Calin Peter Netzer
Original Title: Poziția Copilului
Language: Romanian

Main Cast: Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Ilinca Goia, Natasa Raab, Vlad Ivanov

This is a crafted family drama cum thriller, which won Best Picture at the Berlin Film Festival last year and features an absolutely brilliant central performance from Luminita Gheorghiu. In the picture, Gheorghiu plays an upper class Romanian who attempts to shield her son from the physical and psychological impact of manslaughter charges in a recent car accident; their already uneasy relationship and the accident’s impact on it is beautifully teased out by director Calin Peter Netzer who shows real versatility and understanding in his approach to the material. SUBTITLE regular Vlad Ivanov also shows up in a disarmingly treacherous cameo, which further demonstrates what a fine actor he is. Highly recommended.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw wrote of Child’s Pose:

Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose is a gripping new drama from Romania and another demonstration of how that country’s new wave is developing a distinctive kind of real-time slice-of-life cinema with characterisation in extreme, pitiless closeup. It’s able to open up brilliantly crafted incidental insights into post-Ceaușescu society, and like Corneliu Porumboiu’s _Police, Adjective_ [previously screened at SUBTITLE] and Cristi Puiu’s _The Death of Mr Lazarescu_ [also screened at SUBTITLE], this film has some exquisitely horrible glimpses into bureaucracy and corruption.