The Paper Will Be Blue

The night of 22 December 1989, Bucharest. Ceausescu has fled, but who is in charge and who is on which side is unclear. There is gunfire in the street and nobody knows who is being shot at. A militia conscript, carried away, leaves his unit and goes off to fight for the revolution. His lieutenant and the crew look for him all night. Radu Muntean's film is among the most discussed productions of the Romanian new wave. It tells the revolution not as heroism but as a confusion taking place in the dark: no orders, no information, no clear enemy. Who shot most of those who died that night is still not known. The film states its ending at the start and walks towards it.