California Dreamin'
US Marines pass through a Romanian town leaving havoc in their wakeHard to believe this is a first feature: the ambition is huge, the degree to which it is fulfilled almost as great. But California Dreamin' will be Cristian Nemescu's only feature: he and his editor were killed in a car crash while still working on the film, hence the 'Endless' (which should really be 'Unfinished').
In 1999, a secret NATO train filled with US Marines is halted by a bolshy local station master-cum-black marketeer. What follows is a rambunctious Balkan farce which shades inexorably into tragedy as the soldiers and the townspeople try to fraternise. A happy outcome was never possible and, as the town implodes, the Americans move blithely on to Kosovo, unaware of the violence they have unleashed.
Winner of the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes this year, California Dreamin' is an epic satire, with both modern-day Romania and US foreign policy firmly in its sights.
Nick Roddick
