Iosif Demian's movie shows a bleaker reality and subtly presents the face of Communism in Romania. The picture is shot in the style of cinema verite combining fiction and non-fictional elements. The film was based on actual events which adds a bit to the movie's subversiveness and 90% of the actors were locals who gave the maximum truth to them. There's a way in which people act in front of the camera and another way they act when nobody's filming them. The inhospitable bleak landscape makes for an atmospheric setting that is hard to beat. The plot follows a film crew who conducts a militia investigation in a village on the banks of the Mures River where a young Ana Draga, an agronomist engineer, was killed, shortly the crew discovers that there are more strange things happening in the city. The two policemen on the case (Dorel Visan and George Negoescu) find that it is a homicide. The result is unsatisfactory that tells of political pathologies and human abysses.
Bleak in every aspect-the score, the cinematography, the intense character machinations, the hugely ambitious arthouse tone-it built a sense of gravity far beyond its melodramatic content. At this point, a caution for those expecting humour and wild chases will probably be better served elsewhere. O lacrima de fata (1980) relies on a deliberately reduced speed, on precise observations and atmosphere. Directed by Iosif Demian, it is one of most original Romanian films made during communism. It served as a major inspiration for the Romanian New Wave, also it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.
