A very strong satire of human nature under capitalism featuring corporation cults, ads everywhere, exploitation, imorality and profanity. Main character Angela, runs on what it seems 5 coffes, 6 energy drinks and one Dristor shaorma. She is driving around Bucharest doing her job as production assistant working 16h a day. Global Traffic Congestion Index places Bucharest at number 8 as the most crowded city in the world and 4th in Europe. Also, the capital's streets are flooded with billboards.
Film is made in paralel with an older film, Angela merge mai departe, about the life of a woman driving around Bucharest in the '80s as taxi driver. Angela from communist Bucharest, seems more calm and living a simpler life, enjoying her job as a taxi driver. As film progresses she ecounters diffrent problems, especially misoginistic encounters. We also get to see a diffrent Bucharest, less cars, all cars look the same, no ads, some angry drivers but definitely not as angry as capitalsit Angela. A question arises: was life in communist Romania that calm and simple or is it the censorship working on the film?
Then capitalist born Angela meets communist born Angela, in capitalist times, both being miserable. One being extremly exploited by her company, other bitterned by a small pension and probably many traumatic events of the free market transition in Romania. As the film starts I am trying to categorise nowadays Angela. She wakes up mad next to a Proust book, she makes here and there some jokes meant to be smart and political, she refrences books and history events. She seems a pretty cinical girl, with decent internal universe maybe rude because of being overworked.... film progresses and she has a terrible way of chosing her clothes for the occasion.... and a passion for chewing gum when most unnapropriate... and really into the Andrew Tate filter. Most of the corporate charcters behave the same, constantly referencing and even lecturing cultural aspects, films, books, ancient greek philosophy. A question arises: are these people innate ignorants or is it the capitalist enviorment that kills spirit and passion? There are many human traits crushed or modeled by the rulling ideology.
I laughed so hard at the Bobitza scenes, but couldn't help feeling gulity at the end with the thought of: aren't we degrading together with our entertaiment sources?
More context: a film company and a giant furniture company collaborate in order to produce a short work place safety video. One of the top scenes is a Zoom meeting between all staff, in which we can see the complete and utter ignorane of these marketers, also their rasism. They basically denigrate people that suffered accidents in the furniture factory, seeing them not as victims but as competitors for a 500 euro prize. The furniture company becomes everybody's church, making the employees forget decency in order to server the institution's needs.
We also encounter the perfect capitalist, that assures Angela about the excellent conditions in which the grave of her grandparents will be moved in order to build a new apartment complex. Film is completely hilarous all the time, a dark comedy that shows massive degradation of human spirit. It also signals a cultural crisis in which classic books are sold in traffic for 5 ron and Goethe's niece is a marketing specialist.
10/10.
