Tales From The Golden Age

This trek down memory lane of communist Romania's urban myths and legends strikes a tidy middle ground between jaunty and serious, but ultimately outstays its welcome.

Split into six vignettes, running at twenty minutes or so each, Tales From The Golden Age kicks off with the light-hearted 'The Legend of the Official Visit'. The inhabitants of a rural village painstakingly tidy their town in anticipation of a Party motorcade that may, or may not, pass through their tiny hamlet. It's a perfect story to begin with, as it sets the tone for (most) of what follows. The usual bleak and grim communist era films from Eastern Bloc countries give way to a jolly tale, not a million miles away from the wry humour of the Coen Brothers. The bright colours (red is the colour that unites the shorts) belie the drab-looking films western audiences are used to. Although the sprightly mood continues with 'The Legend of the Party Photographer', the grey colours make an unwelcome return. Here, in the depths of Bucharest's party headquarters, officials meticulously pour over photographs of Ceausescu that will be printed in the following day's newspaper. The perpetual doctoring of the photographs leads to confusion and results in a comical catastrophe.

Tales from the Golden Age then changes tact. It's hard to figure out who directed what, but the downbeat tone of The Legend of the Chicken Driver' suggests 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days helmer Cristian Mungui is responsible. In the first of two downers in this series of shorts (the other being 'The Legend of the Air Sellers'), a by-the-book truck driver is convinced by a pretty restaurant owner to help themselves to the eggs in his chicken delivery truck. Slow paced, this is the least interesting vignette on show. After that, it's back to humour in 'The Legend of the Greedy Policeman': a policeman receives a gift of a live pig from his brother, but is unsure how to kill it without drawing attention to himself. He settles on gassing the pig in his apartment block kitchen with typically disastrous results.

Even though the shorts are comedy heavy, they display an undercurrent of restlessness and fear; the shadow of the Party looms over everything - it's in the actions and faces of those involved - and dictates every aspect of life. Although the shorts themselves are, ahem, short, at a total of two-and-a-half hours Tales... Outstays its welcome.