ARREST by Andrei Cohn
The many facets of terror
The many facets of terror
The saga of Romanian art films that address the issue of middle-class dissent under the socialist regime continues with „Arrest”, a duet film starring Alexandru Papadopol and Iulian Postelnicu, which explores the many facets of terror, known in official terms as the restrictive-repressive treatment.
August 1983. Dinu is arrested while on holiday with his family at the seaside. He is taken to the police station for a simple statement about which he is not given many details. Neagu is locked up in the same room as Vali, a common prisoner who is used as a torturer by the Securitate in exchange for favours.
„Arrest marks the end of the road opened by Cristi Puiu with «The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu» (Arrest is produced by Mandragora, the production company founded by Puiu.) The concept is the same (it’s the concept that has been the basis of several masterpieces of the New Romanian Cinema): following step by step, like in an observational documentary, a (simulated) process. In «The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu” it was the process of admitting a seriously ill old man into a hospital in Bucharest. Here it’s about torturing a man to death.” ( Andrei Gorzo)
«Arrest» is a suffocating film whose palms tacitly curl around the viewer's throat as the story unfolds on screen. It's a film that takes place almost exclusively within the four walls of the Miliție cell and relies heavily on the dynamic between the two inmates - which is, thanks to Iulian Postelnicu's outstanding debut in a substantial role, a revelation.
An atypical hang out film, in the sense that one character seeks to annihilate the other. Postelnicu's performance, driven by a tightly woven script, is of great complexity. The terror comes not strictly from violence but from the alternation. Physical correction and verbal abuse is often mixed with discussions that are as tense as they are absurd. They chat about music, movies, poetry or favorite snacks.” (Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro)