
Synopsis
A duet film starring Alexandru Papadopol and Iulian Postelnicu, exploring the many facets of terror, known in official terms as the restrictive-repressive treatment.
Directed by: Andrei Cohn
Script by: Andrei Cohn, Alex Negoescu
Cast: Alexandru Papadopol, Iulian Postelnicu
Producers: Anca Puiu
Cinematography: Andrei Butică
Edit by: Andrei Iancu
Sound: Florin Tăbăcaru
Music: Mirabela Dauer and Dan Spătaru
Year: 2019
Category: feature film
Genre: drama
Duration: 2 hours 06 minutes
433,548 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
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 favors.
WHAT CRITICS SAY:
„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
FESTIVALS
- Romanian Film Days Award for Best Feature Film at Transilvania International Film Festival în 2019
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2019
- Fathy Farag Award for Best Artistic Contribution at Cairo International Film Festival 2019
ARTICLES
- „Arest” and the issues of torture as spectacle – andreigorzoblog
- Andrei Cohn: “Arrest” is not about a saint of the prisons, but about our cohabitation with the communist system – ziarulmetropolis.ro
- Slice of Gulag – film review for ”Arrest” – aarc.ro
- ”Arest”, by Andrei Cohn: Complicity through silence – aarc.ro
- Andrei Cohn about „Arrest”, communism and guiltiness – aarc.ro