ADALBERT'S DREAM

The videotape of a football match, it moves the man to tears. In 1986, thanks to Duckadam’s heroic feats of goalkeeping, Steaua Bucharest defeats the mighty FC Barcelona. The Romanian communist regime milks the victory for propaganda purposes – but the spirit of the times is different. An atmosphere of social resignation pervades as the eloquent scoundrel Lulica supervises his factory’s poorly coordinated preparations for a celebration honouring the anniversary of the founding of the Romanian Communist Party. The festivities will close with a screening of Lulica’s propaganda film about work safety. Just as Lulica’s chosen title Adalbert’s Dream proves to be ambiguous in a number of regards, so Gabriel Achim’s film is difficult to pin down. The sober, fragmentary chronology of a single day is shot through with highly symbolic splinters from other media, with the two faces of a fox becoming the central metaphor for the condition of society. And so the film builds up to a climax in which the medium itself, drawing upon internal and external sources, helps to dissect a dysfunctional system trapped in a vacuum between ideological compliance, frustration and silent opposition.