California Dreamin'

If it had been made by an American director, say Robert Altman (M*A*S*H) or Norman Jewison (The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming), this story of a NATO peacekeeping force getting stuck in the red tape of Romanian small town politics would have been a comedic satire of the American military complex. Because the film has been made by Romanian director Christian Nemescu, however, the film is a far more nuanced – and honest -- look at the way the world sees America, both as the last real land of opportunity and as the biggest bully of the block. Nemescu does an excellent job of weaving the different narratives of the film into a single story, letting the audience see how the dreams of a young girl looking to escape her dead-end village life are tied into the passionate need for revenge her father feels for the Americans who never came to rescue him as a child during World War II.