California Dreamin’ by Cristian Nemescu

May, 1999. A group of American NATO soldiers are transporting top-secret military equipment through Romania, en route to Kosovo. Anticipating an easy mission, Captain Doug Jones tells his troops to “sit back and enjoy the ride”. All does not go to plan though when they find themselves stuck in the small town of CăpâlniÅ£a, after Doiaru, railway station master and corrupt local overlord, refuses them passage without official customs papers. News of the arrival spreads quickly, and soon the entire population of CÇŽpâlniÅ£a is in a state of excitement.

As the camera flits between different characters, we are introduced to an ambitious town mayor keen to attract business, protesting factory workers desperate to make their voices heard, and local girls simply excited at the prospect of young American soldiers… Part of the so-called “New Wave” generation of young Romanian directors, Cristian Nemescu has produced an accomplished debut feature - unfortunately also his last, as he was tragically killed in a car accident just a few months after finishing editing. A sadly premature end, to a very promising beginning.

Constantly moving between multiple plot threads, California Dreamin’ is rich in detail and scattered with slightly surreal moments (watch out for a brief but delightfully funny adolescent-lust dream sequence). Exploiting the interactions between the stranded troops and the local community to full comic effect, Nemescu offers us an entertaining, if at times rather exaggeratedly eccentric, view of provincial Romanian life. There is however more than enough drama to prevent the story from falling into simple parody, and the main characters are far from one-dimensional figures, thanks to subtly ambiguous performances from the likes of Armand Assante and well-established Romanian actor Razvan Vasilescu. A welcome central focus is also provided by an endearingly awkward love triangle involving Doiaru’s wayward teenage daughter, the US sergeant and the sensitive class geek.

The film expresses a criticism of US foreign policy which is given a historical dimension, through black and white flashbacks to Doiaru’s traumatic childhood experiences during and just after the second world war, explaining thus his real motivations (as Doiaru tells the Captain, “I wait for the Americans to come…to save us from the Germans, the Russians, CeauÅŸescu. It’s funny that you come now”). The most clichéd of narrative devices this may be, fortunately here the result is neither too heavy-handed nor overly simplistic. As the different plotlines collide in a dizzying and violent final climax - involving, amongst other things, a blackout, a bomb explosion, an orgy and an angry mob - nobody emerges as moral victor.

Jude Lister