Synopsis
A young unemployed man accidentally becomes the possessor of a briefcase containing an atomic bomb. The gangsters who stole the bomb and lost it now want to retrieve it.
Directed by: Ion Popescu-Gopo
Cast: Iurie Darie, Eugenia Balaure, Emil Botta, Florin Piersic, Liliana Tomescu, Puiu Calinescu, Draga Olteanu Matei, Horia Caciulescu, Nelly Sterian, Dumitru Hitru, Nicolae Motoc, Jean Danescu, Ion Popescu-Lac
Script: Ion Popescu-Gopo
Producers: Marin Gheoroaie
Cinematography by: Stefan Horvath
Edited by: Erika Aurian
Sound: Anușavan Salamanian, Valentin Bude
Music: Dumitru Capoianu
Year: 1962
Category: feature film
Genre: Fantasy, comedy
Duration: 61 minutes
9,386 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
A dialogue free Romanian science-fiction spy-comedy that draws upon farce, satire and surrealism as it subversively deconstructs the spy thriller with the protagonist’s accidental discovery of a nuclear suitcase bomb and the subsequent fight over ownership between the rival powers of the criminals and the military.
AWARDS
- 1962 – Palme d’Or – Ion Popescu-Gopo – Nominated
- 1962 – Thessaloniki Film Festival – Nominated
WHAT CRITICS SAY:
“No one acknowledges ownership of the briefcase with a dangerous bomb, but everyone fights to obtain it. A young unemployed man finds himself with it, ready to explode at the slightest touch. The streets empty out, except for an angelic figure confronting him with a gaze. He opens the briefcase, tears a piece from the bomb, and throws it to the ground. The explosion is moderated. A child runs and throws his school cap over the mushroom cloud. A parody of a detective film, satirizing the politics of atomic armament.” – Tudor Caranfil – 2002 (Universal Dictionary of Films)
“A briefcase with a bomb ends up in the hands of a young unemployed man, and no one cares about the fate of this odd individual who nonchalantly carries a bomb, while around him, in a frantic agitation, police and gangsters desperately search for the object, in a greedy pursuit of wealth and power. The young unemployed man casually holds the bomb in his left hand while begging for work with his right in a mad, mad, mad world… An angelic figure appears in the shy young man’s path, and another little story adds to the others, and Gopo watches with joy and delight all these stories, weaving them into his dominant thought. Thus, he enters the world of feature films with actors in an original way.” (Călin Căliman, Cinema Magazine 1976)
ARTICLES
- “A bomb was stolen.” More than burlesque – Ionuț Mareș – 2015 – ziarulmetropolis.ro
- “A bomb was stolen”, by Gopo, and “Too small for such a big war”, at Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest – 2012 – cinemagia.ro
