O VARĂ DE NEUITAT / AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER

Romania-France / 1995 / 82’ / color / Drama / Sub: EN / AP-12 / Digitalized version by The National Film Archive

Directed by: Lucian Pintilie

Screnplay: Lucian Pintilie, adaptation after the chapter ”The Lettuce” of the novel ”A Family Chronicle” by Petru Dumitriu

With: Kristin Scott Thomas, Claudiu Bleonţ, Răzvan Vasilescu, Olga Tudorache, Marcel Iureş, George Constantin, Ioan Gyuri Pascu, Tamara Creţulescu, Dragoş Pâslaru, Dorina Lazăr, Florin Călinescu, Emilia Popescu

Produced by:Filmex, Studios of Ministry of Culture Romania, MK2 Production, Cinema La Sept, Canal Plus, Ministry of Culture and Francophonia France

To protect his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) against the approaches that an arrogant colonel - his senior in rank - makes to her, captain Dimitriu (Claudiu Bleonț) requests permission to join another regiment. He is sent to a frontier garrison in Cadrilater, a province that Romania annexed from Bulgaria after the war of 1913. When the Macedonian smugglers kill some of his frontier guards, Dimitriu takes several Bulgarian peasants as hostages. But his wife treats them kindly and in return they teach her to grow vegetables. The order to shoot the hostages starts a drama in the captain's family. Since he refuses to obey this order, he is dismissed and forced to leave the garrison while the peasants are killed.

The film premiered in Romania April 21^st, 1995 and it was selected in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival from 1994.