A Cautionary Tale | MakingWaves

A Cautionary Tale

Original title: Cum să fiu mort, dacă-s viu?

Ilinca Călugăreanu. 2023, Romania/UK, 79 min

NEW YORK PREMIERE

Q&A with director Ilinca Călugăreanu

A Cautionary Tale plunges us into the surreal odyssey of a man who, after 25 years abroad, returns home only to discover he’s been declared legally dead. This stranger-than-fiction story made international headlines in 2018, exposing the absurdity of a system that refused to acknowledge his existence despite his physical presence in court. Director Călugăreanu embeds herself in his arduous quest to reclaim his identity, capturing both his desperation and unwavering determination. As the film delves deeper, however, unsettling questions arise about his narrative. Was he truly a victim of bureaucratic blunder, or is there a hidden truth lurking beneath the surface? This thought-provoking exploration, laced with dry humor, leaves viewers grappling with the complexities of truth and the thin line between victim and manipulator.

Part of the 18th Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema

Directed by Ilinca Călugăreanu
In Romanian and English with English subtitles. NR

8:00 pm | BUY TICKETS

Critics’ Corner

Cine-File: A new review of Nae Caranfil`s film (available online)

"DO NOT LEAN OUT THE WINDOW is a boisterous film that looks at the seismic shift in Romanian society with the cautious joy of a caged animal set free. It is a crucial precursor to the revelatory Romanian New Wave that should not be missed."

NY Times: Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C.

"In Romania, the democratic reforms that followed the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 also turned the country into a global filmmaking powerhouse, culminating in what has been called the Romanian New Wave."

NYRB: J. Hoberman recommends

"These thirty films also include some of the best made anywhere during the past three decades."

MW public – Andrei Codrescu: “In Praise of New Romanian Film”

The New Wave festival returns to New York every year with astonishing new films, alongside a well-curated archive. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

J.B. Spins: “Luxury Hotel” – For fans of dystopian social satire

"Luxury Hotel could have probably only been produced during the immediate post-Ceausescu aftermath, when the palace was available, in all its faded grandeur. It is definitely spectacle, but serious, distinctively pointed spectacle."

Screenslate: “The Autobiography of N. Ceaușescu”- conceived as a flashback

"And now it is our turn, all these decades later, to be the ones to look and learn."

J.B. Spins: “The Oak” – Deeply compelling cinema

"The Oak is a defiantly bold, chaotically head-spinning indictment of Ceausescu Socialism, but it is also deeply compelling cinema. This is definitely auteurist cinema from Pintilie that still connects on a profoundly human level."

The Criterion Collection: Romanians… in America

"Film Forum will be showcasing thirty Romanian films made during the thirty years since the overthrow and execution of iron-fisted dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu."

„The Romanian New Wave shows no signs of waning, with steady input from such directors as Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristi Puiu, and Cristian Mungiu."

„The former communist country has emerged as a powerhouse of cinema over the last two decades and much has been made about the Romanian New Wave, a genre of naturalistic and unflinching films that have been consistently winning top prizes such as the Palme d’Or in Cannes and awards at the Berlin and Venice festivals.”

The New York Times

„In the last decade, the emergence of a Romanian new wave has been one of the most startling developments in world cinema, with one film after another winning prizes at Cannes and elsewhere.”

The Wall Street Journal

"Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, the annual weeklong survey that has helped define and establish the southeastern European country as a stronghold of socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema.”

The Wall Street Journal

„Romania cinema has gradually become a central component of international film culture."