Pororoca, written and directed by Constantin Popescu - 8.1 out of 10

Pororoca, written and directed by Constantin Popescu
8.1 out of 10


Like so much else in this film, the title has a meaning that escapes the viewer, referring to a phenomenon that takes place in the Amazon region, with a hard to identify connection with the motion picture.

Unless of course, the tragedy that takes place early on takes everything in its wake and the initial disaster is only amplified by the consequent waves.
Pororocahas been acclaimed from Minsk to Dublin to Cartagena and San Sebastián, Durban, Luxembourg, Odessa.
It has recently won a few prizes at the local Oscars, where Bogdan Dumitrache has won the Best Actor in a Leading Role trophy, which he has gained in so many other competitions.

As a note of personal added interest, I see the actor at the pool where I go and which is also used by another member of the cast - and other actors and actresses - who has more of a cameo appearance and I had to ask - was it you as the guard who is sent to look for the child?
Bogdan Dumitrache is Tudor, an upper middle class father and husband who would experience a massive breakdown and the ultimate adversity.

Although the film has clear merits, there are some flaws that could have been avoided.
One is the length, which at about two hours and thirty minutes seems too much to take.

Other issues might seem less important and nevertheless absconded for e international audience,anyway limited, given the independent status of the production and limited marketing resources.
The protagonist owns a Toyota Hilux, a pick up truck that is quite expensive and in a certain contradiction with other elements in the background.

I also drive a pickup truck, but only one in one thousand would do that here.
It seemed quite strange.

However, the core of the movie is elsewhere and we soon plunge into the abyss.
As Tudor takes his children, Maria and Ilie - the name is another seemingly peculiar choice - , to the nearby park, he looks for his daughter, but he cannot find her at the playground, where she had been only seconds ago.

A devious, malevolent, hopefully tinged with some dark humor thought came when I saw this...

Why is that kid disappearing within seconds of being left alone and the Angels of Hades that bring hell to my neighborhood never fail to return, day after day.

In this gated community here, the practice of rude parents is to send their offspring on the streets with little care as to what happens, what they destroy, which new target they choose to set on fire and so on and so on.
They are invincible, imperturbable and as aforementioned, never lost...alas.

Poor Maria is absent.
The police is called and an investigation is launched.

This is where other objections could be formulated.
Yes, the police has made progress, but for someone who has to take his child from near their Academy, it is evident that not only this generation, but also the next, is compromised by the wrong perspective, attitude, ethics and morals or lack there of.

Hence, the calmness, resilience, application, grit, interest manifested by the policeman in charge do not correspond yet with the reality.
By the way, yesterday, they have just identified an individual who has sent death threats to a woman journalist and he works at the Police Academy.


Evidently, they are not all as monstrous as this guy and some could be just about as angelic as the character in the film, but how many would there be?
Three? Four?

The family is brutally affected by the disappearance and it may desintegrate.
Iulia Lumanare has impressed me in other roles, but she seems rather off the mark here...I am most probably wrong, for she has won the Gopo and they must know better.

Overall, there is much to appreciate in s film, but also quite a lot to dislike...at least if you're in my shoes.