I saw this film on the Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2009 a week ago. The theater was full. We are in the post communist era during the 90s. The hero is an old man that his wife doesn't speak to him for the past years and his son is in Canada and doesn't want to talk to him. The government sends him a letter letting him know that he has been awarded with a medal for his valor during world war II. Its really a very humane movie. Very kind, romantic. It keeps you going for the whole time and you really want to see why his wife is not talking to him, why his son is avoiding to talk to him on the phone and how he is trying to recover the lost time. And the ending is very very good. Lets say that it left me with a smile on my face. Romanian cinema is at its best. A really good, honest and bittersweet cinema. Movies like this one, The Paper will be Blue and The Death of Mr Lazarescu proves that we will have a bright "cinematic future".

This is a typical European art movie. Very humane, it presents the drama o f an old man, whose well-intended, but wrong action has lead to the loss of his only son, who emigrated and refuses for more than six years to speak to his father. His wife, with whom he is living, refuses to speak to him as of punishment for his actions. The movie, quite dynamic compared to others of this kind, presents the daily life of a father who's right to speak to his son and to his grandchildren is refused. Things change when the man is awarded a medal of honor, which apparently becomes the main plot of the story. His life changes, as he suddenly receives a great attention from everybody, leading him to the impression that this is the opportunity to impress his son and reconcile. The story is seasoned with some post-communist era humor. Maybe the main attraction of the film is the main actor's acting. The director has managed to cast the perfect man for the role, who's act was just excellent. The movie has a great, touching, ending, which says it all! I find this film worth-seeing, from every point of view: story, directing, acting, etc...