Director Bodgan Muresanu's tense chronicle of several interwoven lives depicts the havoc, anguish and tragedy wrought upon individuals under Ceausescu's oppressive regime in the days surrounding the Timisoara massacre of 1989. A middle-aged widow and her adult son, an actress and a theatre director, a labourer and his family, a national radio director and his college-age activist son become fearful of their neighbours, of state surveillance and harsh reprisal. The only alternatives are forced compliance and inescapable self-betrayal or voluntary exile. The entire populace endures economic privation and tight control by the state, their resentment expressed with a mix of sardonic humour and despair. As one character observes, "So many lives ruined -- and for what?" I viewed this film with a Romanian friend who lived in the country during the period depicted, and who attested to this film's veracity and authenticity in every detail, including its diction and the skillful portrayal of the people's pervasive mood. Set against an ironic soundtrack, this heart-wrenching, close-to-the-bone close-up of a dictatorship is a powerful film whose final moments are unexpectedly exhilarating.