
Directing
Alexandru Tatos was a Romanian film director and screenwriter, known for his subtle, humanist approach to cinema. His films often explore moral dilemmas, everyday life under communism, and the quiet tensions between individuals and society. Tatos favored realism, strong character studies, and restrained storytelling over spectacle, making his work deeply introspective and socially observant. Though his filmography is relatively small, he is regarded as an important voice in Romanian cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.

Three sequences which could have formed separate stories are linked together to give a larger perspective on the nature of reality and film. The three episodes are joined together by one film crew at work. In the beginning, the crew is introduced as they juggle their dual roles as State-supported propagandists who laud their government and society, and as private movie makers working on their own film. Next, they are in a restaurant looking for suitable locations to film when the eatery’s owner is induced to wax long and lugubriously on his miserable life. In the last segment, two extras are in the background of a scene, sitting at a table in a restaurant. It slowly becomes apparent to one of them that the man he’s sitting with tortured him more than 40 years ago at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

A border town on the Danube, 1944. The town is occupied by the Germans, and there are plenty of collaborators. A number of the young men join the partisans, kill a Serbian, and throw his body into the village, forbidding anyone to bury it. Anastasia refuses to obey the order…

In Alexandru Tatos’s debut film, a young urologist is assigned to a town hospital with no urology ward and keeps bumping up against his superiors because of both ethical and medical problems.

In this allegorical fairy-tale, peaceful and warlike knights vie for the hand of a beautiful princess, while a discussion of disco goes on around them. She favors a peaceful knight, while her father and his advisors like the ones carrying around a lot of weapons.

In the communist Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu, a young Romanian woman marries a German citizen just to leave the country.

Three sequences which could have formed separate stories are linked together to give a larger perspective on the nature of reality and film. The three episodes are joined together by one film crew at work. In the beginning, the crew is introduced as they juggle their dual roles as State-supported propagandists who laud their government and society, and as private movie makers working on their own film. Next, they are in a restaurant looking for suitable locations to film when the eatery’s owner is induced to wax long and lugubriously on his miserable life. In the last segment, two extras are in the background of a scene, sitting at a table in a restaurant. It slowly becomes apparent to one of them that the man he’s sitting with tortured him more than 40 years ago at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

In the communist Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu, a young Romanian woman marries a German citizen just to leave the country.

Fresh out of university, agricultural engineer Voica Teodorescu returns to her native village where she joins a local team of engineers in the planning of a dam and an irrigation mega project.Although Voica is engaged to be married to Ilarie she also is romantically attracted to local engineer Radu. Radu doesn't agree with local boss Vasile Axente's management style and deems Vasile incompetent.Therefore, Radu tries to form an alliance with the village vice-mayor Dumitru Vardaru but when a large sum of money from the public works budget goes missing Radu is investigated by authorities for embezzlement of public funds.His relationship with Voica and the villagers gets sourly tested.

The 17-year-old Amalia, the daughter of a widower lumberjack with many children, falls in love with a soldier. An irresponsible young man, the soldier refuses to admit that he is the father of the child to be born, as Amalia was just a fling in his eyes. Amalia decides to raise the kid all by herself, but she soon changes her mind…

Young lawyer Radu Comșa is confronted with an identity crisis as WWI starts.
