Based on true events. In the Romanian town of Lupeni August 5, 1929, driven to despair by hard labor conditions miners under the leadership of Communists organized a strike. The miners demanded higher wages and an eight-hour workday. They opposed the government's attempts to shift the entire burden of the economic crisis onto the workers' shoulders. The government, concerned about the scale of the strike and the workers' determination not to give in to their demands, ordered troops to shoot at unarmed people. On August 7, the strike was brutally suppressed. Many workers were killed. But these events have forever gone down in the history of the Romanian labor movement as an example of solidarity, heroism and invincibility of the people.

Ciulei’s second feature recalls the best of Fritz Lang and Michael Curtiz in its WWII-era espionage tale, set on a barge transporting Nazi munitions up the Danube. Ciulei himself givers a superb performance as Mihai, the barge captain forced to navigate the heavily mined waters along with his new bride, Ana (Irina Petrescu). As the journey wears on, Mihai becomes increasingly suspicious of one of his crew, ex-convict Toma (Lazar Vrabie), and his intentions towards Ana. But Toma has a far graver—and potentially deadly—secret to conceal.

Romania, 1940. A boy meets a girl. They fall in love without suspecting anything about their real identities. They chose an eventful, tense and dangerous life as underground anti-fascists fighters. The significance of their activity is manifest in the consequences it has on the tormented progress of their love. Reality is against it. Two parallel lines which meet for a second, only to drift apart for ever.

After refusing to compromise at his job, a university professor leaves the city and returns to his native village for the first time in many years.

A village celebrates being granted the title of city. During the festivity an old, sick, beat down man shows up. No one seems to recognise him but he claims to be a villager that everyone thought had died in the war 30 years earlier.

A young engineer arrives for a short time in Bucharest, where he reconnects with the girl that he loves since college. They get married, and she sacrifices her career to follow him to a big project away.

September, 1944. A group of soldiers and resistance fighters set to blow up a viaduct of strategic value.

In 1919, young Doctor Poenaru is sent to be the director at a country hospital. On his way there he meets a formar army comrade, now a lawyer. An ideological and philosophical dispute ensues, the two following different paths in life.

Mihai is expelled from college and sentenced to prison for a DUI accident. After his term in prison, he is hired at a construction site to be "re-educated"

A young officer of the Romanian Army performs a sabotage mission against the Nazi regime. Seriously wounded, the officer can not reach the fixed place and finds shelter in a surgeon's home.