The Campaign

The Campaign

A deadpan black comedy about elections in a small town, somewhere in Romania-typical Eastern Europe place. When a high profile politician is left behind in a lost place, he will have to live in the house of the commmon people, facing his voters. I loved the actors. They seem they actually live there, maybe amateur actors. I enjoyed the surprising black-comedy end of the film , in the style of New Romanian Cinema very different then the usual commercial films you stream. The cinematography captures really well the rythm and the place, the small town but also the fields around it that seem like a desert. It also reminded me of Aki Kaurismaki films in the 90s. I warmly recommend it as a piece of real cinema.

The Campaign is like a Florida freight train: it just goes on and on and on. And nothing interesting happens during the entire 90 minutes: no plot development, no character development, and no storytelling of any kind. It's almost like a documentary in that we witness a politician try to get elected by the usual methods: astroturfing, baby kissing, and general pandering. But that's it. That's all he does, and then the movie ends in a very Sopranos-finale manner (minus suspense of any kind), as we're about to find out if he won the election. The only reason I gave this film any stars is because the cinematography - especially the landscape shots of rural Romania - is beautiful. Other than that, I can't say anything positive about this movie except that it ended.

Yet another Romanian crappy movie made with public money. It's got no direction, no story, no character depth, no sense. Just clichee after clichee like a sketch on a piece of paper. But at least it's got the Romanian new wave trademark of a nonsense scene of eating soup (ciorba).