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 Hula Hoop King

By the time the Coen Brothers released their fourth feature film, Barton Fink (1991), they were quickly becoming the toast of Hollywood, winning various awards and prizes as well as a rapidly growing fan base thanks to the cult appeal of previous films like Blood Simple (1980) and Raising Arizona (1984). Their follow-up feature to Barton Fink was much anticipated but the Coens surprised everyone when their fifth movie turned out to be The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), which was drastically different from anything they had made before.

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