Sobolanii Rosii is a powerful and uncompromising expose of the Romanian bitterness at the failure of the revolution. Its message is all the more convincing in that the storyline is semi-autobiographical. Director Florin Codre trained and worked as a sculptor before making Sobolanii Rosii . The film is his first and only one as he returned to sculpture following its completion. In most Central European countries a popular formula has been the light comedy which takes an affectionate and sentimental look at those good old bad old days of Communism.
Popular ingredients are youthful innocence, love and only a modicum of social reality.
Set in a small country town at the beginning of the 1980s, the film presents three inter-twining adventures in love from three different angles. Off the shelf again Not all recently released Romanian films are new, however. Furthermore, it has been restored to its original uncut form. A perpetual loser, Ion is consumed by a series of obsessions that lead him into ever-mounting danger and ultimately to his death. First of all, he tries to avenge his father's death, secondly he embarks on a romantic liaison with an ill-matched girl and finally he sides with the rebels who after the end of 1945 tried to resist the imposition of Communism and fight for freedom.