Product Description

Bucharest 1989 Last year of Ceausescu's dictatorship. Eva, 17, lives with her parents and her 7 year-old brother Lalalilu. One day at school, Eva and her boyfriend accidentally break a bust of Ceausescu. They are forced to confess their crime before a disciplinary committee. Eva is expelled from school and transferred to a reformatory establishment. There she meets Andrei and decides to escape Romania with him. Lalalilu is more and more convinced that Ceausescu is the main reason for Eva's decision to leave. So, with his friends from school, he devises a plan to kill the dictator.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32305 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-12-04
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: Romanian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Customer Reviews

escaping
The Way I Spent the End of the World (not a title to roll off the tongue) is a lovely little film with its heart in the right place. It's about the lives of high-school kids just before the overthrow of Communism in 1989 Romania. These kids want to get on with life only they are surrounded by a crazy sense of censorship and they lack a connection to the outside world so they decide to look for a way out. The idea is that they want to swim across the Danube (like many did in real life). Doroteea Petre convincingly plays the role of the central character, a girl who's looking for more.

The recent interest in Romanian cinema has meant that films like The Way I Spent the End of the World are now available to an English-speaking audience. It shows a general quality in Romanian film-making. I would say it's an honest type of film-making, willing to show the day to day lives of real people and their situations. Although not a visionary piece (such as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or The Death of Mr Lazarescu) The Way I Spent the End of the World comes recommended if you're in the mood for original, heartfelt cinema.

Bogdan Tiganov - author of The Wooden Tongue Speaks: Romanians: Contradictions and Realities

Highly recommended
This film is beautifully made. With just a small understanding of Communist Romania, a viewer can really enjoy the creativity in telling this story. The main character is a strong heroine, but the characters around her add a lot of entertainment and give ground for reflection. I like that the film focuses on a neighborhood with its share of normal problems, while in the background communist control is falling apart.

The Way I Spent the End of the World/ Romanian
An interesting movie for those seeking some understanding in the difficulties of modern Romanian life...couldn't get away to go this summer...so I slipped this disc...and went, I was there!!!