The Way I Spent the End of the World, a selection at the 2007 Cinefranco Film Festival, is a beautifully executed film by Catalin Mitulescu, who makes his directorial debut with this powerful movie set in Bucharest, Romania, during the weeks leading up to the Romanian Revolution of 1989. That year, brutal riots lasted from December 16th to the 22nd and led to communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s execution as well as the overthrow of his regime.

High school student Alexandru (Ionut Becheru) is obsessed with Eva (Doroteea Petre), the girl next door who attends his high school. One day he races into  Eva’s classroom, telling the instructor the headmaster wants to see Eva immediately. When Eva leaves her class and heads for the headmaster’s office, Alexandru grabs her and leads her to a vacant room, admitting the headmaster hasn’t asked to see her at all. Alexandru simply wants ten minutes alone with her without fear anyone would come looking for them. These two are eager to get together, so they set up a date to meet at his house when nobody else is home. As Eva leaves the room, Alexandru kicks at the air, and his foot connects with a bust of Ceausescu. It tumbles to the ground and shatters.

The worried students realize they could be sent to jail, or at the very least, expelled if someone heard the crash and caught them in the room together. They attempt to flee the scene without getting noticed. Unfortunately, a teacher walking down the hall heard the loud crash. Seeing Eva and Alexandru running through the halls, he puts two and two together and informs on them.

Alexandru’s father is a police officer with strong ties to Ceausescu’s regime. He uses his influence to get the school and the authorities not to punish his son.  He tells Alexandru he will also prevent Eva from being punished. Alexandru believes his father will have the incident ruled an accident, but Eva finds herself expelled from school and sent to reform school instead.

While at reform school, Eva develops a friendship with Andrei (Cristian Vararu), another inmate, who wants to leave Romania behind and be free of Ceausescu’s tyranny. The only way he can make good an escape is by training to cross the Danube River using a makeshift life jacket. But first he needs to develop his stamina to endure frigid waters by sitting in an ice-cold bathtub with Eva, who intends on joining him in his quest.

Meanwhile, suspicion of being involved in a conspiracy to oust Ceausescu falls on Andrei’s parents, and Eva’s six-year-old Brother Lalalilu (Timotei Duma) vows to kill the dictator at a national event where the boy will also be attending as a part of a choir scheduled to sing there.  

The Way I Spent the End of the World pulls all this drama together well and boasts solid direction from Mitulescu, who co-wrote the film’s intriguing screenplay with Andreea Valean. In terms of acting honors, Petre is the standout here for her haunting work as Eva.

The Way I Spent the End of the World will be screened on March 24th, 2007, at the Cinefranco Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. For tickets please call 416-967-1528 or log onto www.cinefranco.com.

(Released by Pyramide International; not rated by MPAA)