Child's Pose

Cornelia is a wealthy architect; she is known in good circles in Bucharest and is at odds with her thirty two year old son Barbu. He will not see her. One night the phone rings: Barbu has hit a child with his car and the child is dead. Cornelia moves. She goes to the police station, reads the statements, talks to a witness, finds a lawyer and tries to change how the file is written. She does not ask whether her son wants this. In the end she goes to meet the dead child's family. Călin Peter Netzer directs. Luminița Gheorghiu plays Cornelia; Vlad Ivanov is in the cast. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It belongs to the new wave of Romanian cinema, a current built on realist narrative, long takes and criticism of institutions. The matter it treats is class and influence; Cornelia does not use money directly, she uses her connections and her language. Its hardest section is the meeting at the end; the narrative loads all its weight onto a single scene there. The photography rests on handheld camera and close shots; the narrative is always at the character's heels. The narrative does not build the mother as a monster; love and control sit inside the same behaviour. Who it is for: viewers who like Romanian cinema and realist family drama. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the camera restless, and attachment to the character difficult.