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Product Description
This ambitious, sharp and hilarious satire of petty bureaucracy and cultural misunderstandings is set in a small Romanian town during the 1999 Kosovo confict. A US-manned NATO train bound for the border unexpectedly reaches the end of the line when a stubborn and pedantic tation master applies the brakes over a paperwork technicality. Sensing golden opportunity to proft from the Americans' unexpected presence, he local community go to ridiculous lengths to welcome them, while the stranded troops' hard-bitten and increasingly frustrated captain (Armande Assante) decides to take matters into his own hands…
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), Romanian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Documentary, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: This ambitious, sharp and hilarious satire of petty bureaucracy and cultural misunderstandings is set in a small Romanian town during the 1999 Kosovo confict. A US-manned NATO train bound for the border unexpectedly reaches the end of the line when a stubborn and pedantic station master applies the brakes over a paperwork technicality. Sensing golden opportunity to profit from the Americans' unexpected presence, the local community go to ridiculous lengths to welcome them, while the stranded troops' hard-bitten and increasingly frustrated captain (Armande Assante) decides to take matters into his own hands SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, ...California Dreamin' ( Nesfarsit ) ( California Dreamin (Endless) )
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
In 1999 an American troop detachment operating within NATO crosses Romania on train in order to deliver some radar equipment to Kosovo, where war is raging. At a remote station in the Romanian countryside the train is stopped by a seemingly overzealous station master, requesting the custom paperwork relative to the goods transported, documents which are not available to the american captain in charge of the detachment. The train is therefore left stranded for days at the station, waiting for the paperwork, and the presence of the "Americans" stirs the imagination and inventiveness of the nearby village's population. Businessmen vie for the chance of notoriety and foreign investment they think will come with the stranded train. Young girls - among which the station master's daughter - seek the chance for romance with the Yankee soldiers and, especially, the connected hope to escape from their poor village to an imaginary future in the American dream.
Meanwhile the friction grows stronger between the American captain and the station master, with NATO and Romanian bureaucracy working frantically and very inefficiently to resolve the impasse. The station master is a very unlikeable but very human character, who has his own very deep and ancient reasons for his behaviour, reasons that are progressively disclosed in some very nice flashbacks in B&W relative to his youth. The tension boils to a climax at the end of the film.
This is a funny - though not hilarious- little movie that works on so many levels. It deals with the perception of the US and of the American way of life in a country so far removed from both, physically and mentally. It deals with troubled family relationships, it deals with burocracy and corruption, but in my opinion what is most impressive is the portrayal of cultural difference and exploitation, and in the end one is left wondering who is really is exploited and who is the exploiter. I heartily reccomend this funny satiric movie.
Interestingly enough, the story is based on a true event, as we can learn from the extras. As a note, the movie is subtitled in English only when there is Romanian speech. When the spoken language is english (about 15% of the screen time) there is no subtitling available.
Meanwhile the friction grows stronger between the American captain and the station master, with NATO and Romanian bureaucracy working frantically and very inefficiently to resolve the impasse. The station master is a very unlikeable but very human character, who has his own very deep and ancient reasons for his behaviour, reasons that are progressively disclosed in some very nice flashbacks in B&W relative to his youth. The tension boils to a climax at the end of the film.
This is a funny - though not hilarious- little movie that works on so many levels. It deals with the perception of the US and of the American way of life in a country so far removed from both, physically and mentally. It deals with troubled family relationships, it deals with burocracy and corruption, but in my opinion what is most impressive is the portrayal of cultural difference and exploitation, and in the end one is left wondering who is really is exploited and who is the exploiter. I heartily reccomend this funny satiric movie.
Interestingly enough, the story is based on a true event, as we can learn from the extras. As a note, the movie is subtitled in English only when there is Romanian speech. When the spoken language is english (about 15% of the screen time) there is no subtitling available.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film turned out to be as hilarious as I had hoped, yet it also participates in a serious dialogue about America's influence in the world, as it deals with reactions of some non-Americans (in this case Romanians) to America. A top quality film with fascinating characters and a plot that won't let you down.
Format:DVD
California Dreamin' is definitely a multilayered movie, even though it is the comedic elements that sell the movie first and foremost. An American military transport, enroute from Constanza to Kosovo during the 1999 bombing campaign of Yugoslavia gets stuck at a local train station, where the station master refuses passage, until all paperwork is completed and handed over.
This results in an interesting clash of two cultures, with the American captain desperate to get the train going and the local stationmaster stoutly refusing to budge. The supporting cast of American soldiers out for a good time, a multitude of locals out to sort their own problems through the medium of the Americans, girls dreaming of a better life in the US all add their comic moments and the movie being made in Romania, this is not a Borat [Blu-ray] type over the top comedy but rather a more authentic representation of what comes astir in such a situation.
While most of it is of course pretty funny (even more so to people who have at least a rudimentary understanding of both cultures clashing here), there are some more serious elements mixed in, too. These give the movie additional depth and will leave a mark lasting longer than just the memory of the funny scenes.
While perhaps not as hillarious or full of symbolism as something like Black Cat, White Cat [1998] [DVD], this is a very good movie nevertheless and I am pretty sure you will spend an enjoyable two hours with it. Better still, it is based on true events - another example of truth being stranger than fiction.
In addition to the movie (with English subtitles only) you will get the theatrical trailer and a documentary on the making of, which fills in some of the blanks, and even includes the interview with the 'real' reluctant stationmaster.
This results in an interesting clash of two cultures, with the American captain desperate to get the train going and the local stationmaster stoutly refusing to budge. The supporting cast of American soldiers out for a good time, a multitude of locals out to sort their own problems through the medium of the Americans, girls dreaming of a better life in the US all add their comic moments and the movie being made in Romania, this is not a Borat [Blu-ray] type over the top comedy but rather a more authentic representation of what comes astir in such a situation.
While most of it is of course pretty funny (even more so to people who have at least a rudimentary understanding of both cultures clashing here), there are some more serious elements mixed in, too. These give the movie additional depth and will leave a mark lasting longer than just the memory of the funny scenes.
While perhaps not as hillarious or full of symbolism as something like Black Cat, White Cat [1998] [DVD], this is a very good movie nevertheless and I am pretty sure you will spend an enjoyable two hours with it. Better still, it is based on true events - another example of truth being stranger than fiction.
In addition to the movie (with English subtitles only) you will get the theatrical trailer and a documentary on the making of, which fills in some of the blanks, and even includes the interview with the 'real' reluctant stationmaster.
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