Synopsis
A young doctor encounters corruption in the Romanian medical system.
Directed by: Alexandru Tatos
Script: Ion Băieșu
Cast: Ion Cojar, Mircea Diaconu, Emilia Dobrin, Carmen Galin, Ernest Maftei, Mitică Popescu, Angela Stoenescu, Florin Zamfirescu
Producers: Constantin Stoiciu
Cinematography by: Florin Mihailescu
Edited by: Yolanda Mintulescu
Sound: Horea Murgu
Music: Cornel Taranu
Year: 1976
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 85 minutes
45,798 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
The main character, a young surgeon (passionate consumer of red apples), an excellent professional, inflexible in adhering to moral norms, is in a constant struggle with the indifference and ignorance of his peers, with their small-mindedness, with the obtuseness and careerism of the hospital director.
“Red Apples” precisely expresses the conflict between talent, professional dedication, adherence to the Hippocratic oath of the protagonist facing mediocrity, arrogance, and careerism of some colleagues who, at any cost, want to climb the professional and social ladder. The rise of the young doctor Mitică Irod, assigned to a provincial hospital, jeopardizes the position of Dr. Mitroi, the epitome of a professionally stagnant character, as the hospital director.
Mitică (enthusiastic, charismatic, and convincing in the role played by actor Mircea Diaconu) makes no compromises in his relationship with his superior, constantly reminding him of his duty and the function he represents. He ignores so-called “social conveniences” and does not compromise in addressing the hospital’s problems and those of the patients. Well-intentioned and lucid, ready for personal sacrifices, he considers that he has only one real enemy in the world: death, which, unfortunately, he does not always manage to defeat.
DIRECTOR ABOUT THE MOVIE
“I was intensely concerned, first and foremost, with the grammatical issues of the profession. It’s true, perhaps the film has a kind of enthusiasm that I haven’t found afterwards. I wanted it to be a human story, and I believe it turned out that way. And the fact that it’s true, I don’t consider it a special merit, but an obligatory condition. I didn’t set out to make ‘Red Apples’ true or less true. I made it as I felt.” – Alexandru Tatos
CRITICAL OPINIONS
Comedy-drama. In the world of a provincial town, a nonconformist young surgeon – a passionate consumer of red apples – imposes a moral and professional conduct that is inflexible, yet strongly colored by humor and humanity, as a response to villainy, administrative obtuseness, and careerism, which fail to bring him down or compromise him. – Bujor T. Râpeanu (“Filmed in Romania”, 2005, Ed. Pro Foundation)
Based on a screenplay by Ion Băieșu, Alexandru Tatos’s film presents the charming and credible moral portrait of a young surgeon who understands his profession as a consuming passion. On one hand, the film is about dedication, talent, enthusiasm, “fire,” altruism, and on the other hand – because the film also has a “conflict,” sustained with tact and measure – it’s about opportunism, selfishness, envy, cowardice, suspicion. Among the “positive” characters crafted in Romanian films, the doctor from “Red Apples,” superbly and very nuancedly interpreted by Mircea Diaconu (the actor merging with the character and vice versa), is a commendable exception. Alongside Mircea Diaconu, the film features Angela Stoenescu (a hospital nurse whom the young doctor loves), Ion Cojar (a medical “glory” who holds meetings and “pulls strings”), Carmen Galin (a psychology professor related, as a species, to the young doctor), Ernest Maftei (a talkative old man in the emergency room), Emilia Dobrin, Florin Zamfirescu, Mitică Popescu… It has been rightly considered, in premiere reviews, that a film like “Red Apples” has effectively contributed to the maturation of our contemporary cinema. – Călin Căliman
ARTICLES
- Red Apples (Alexandru Tatos, 1975) – Ovidiu Pop – blogdefilm.ro
- ROMANIA THEATER AND FILMS: “Red Apples” (1976) – 2020 – agerpres.ro
This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.
