A Quiet Life in the Country?

A Romanian film poster for the black comedy MEN OF DEEDS (2022).

IIie has had his fill of city life and decides to start over again with a clean slate in a small rural town in Moldavia, Romania. As the head cop in the village of Babuleni (a fictional place), he looks forward to a quieter, more laidback lifestyle and the possibility of buying a small patch of land with a fruit orchard. Past failures – a divorce and dismissal from a job under humiliating circumstances – have taught Ilie to keep a low profile and mind his own business. As he ex-wife Mona reminds him, “You fu*ked up your career once playing knight,” and Ilie has no interest in stirring things up in his new locale, despite indications that the town officials may be corrupt. Yet, despite his lazy demeanor and questionable job skills, Ilie soon finds himself dragged into a murder mystery where he is forced to take sides. What begins as an amusing character study of a hapless public figure slowly transitions into a macabre comedy with an unexpected twist ending in Oameni de Treaba (English title: Men of Deeds, 2022), directed by Romanian filmmaker Paul Negoescu.

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The Bar Hostess of Ginza

Keiko (Hideko Takamine) prepares to go to work at a bar on the second floor of a popular male destination in WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (1960).

Most fans of Japanese cinema know that the Ginza district of Tokyo is often featured as a setting in films with its vibrant nightlife, intimate bars and fashionable shops, particularly in contemporary movies. Although the district dates back to the Edo period in the 16th century, the area has seen major changes over the years including a devastating fire in 1872 and widespread damage from aerial attacks during WWII. Yet, it always seemed to reinvent itself after every major setback and, by the end of the 1950s, it had become a prosperous symbol of Japan’s post-war recovery with its mix of upscale shoppers, modern buildings and cultural hotspots. It is against this colorful backdrop that Mikio Naruse’s Onna ga Kaidan wo Agaru Toki (English title: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, 1960) takes place and the central focus is Keiko Yashiro (Hideko Takamine), one of the most popular bar hostesses in the Ginza sector.

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Life in a Turkish Prison

In 1977 Billy Hayes, with the assistance of William Hoffer, wrote a best-selling account of his arrest and imprisonment in a Turkish prison entitled Midnight Express. Hayes, an American student on vacation in Turkey, had been apprehended at the Istanbul Airport on October 6, 1970, trying to smuggle 2.2 kilos of hashish out of the country (it was concealed under his clothes and taped to his body). He was sentenced to four years and two months for possession but in 1974, the Turkish High Court in Ankara overturned his original sentence, found him guilty of smuggling and sentenced him to serve an additional 30 years. Hayes’s 1977 account of the brutal prison conditions he endured with his fellow inmates and his eventual escape to Greece in 1975 was a riveting cautionary tale for its era. Not surprisingly, Hollywood came calling and Columbia Pictures eventually acquired the film rights, releasing the big screen adaptation of Midnight Express in October 1978.

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