Tales from the Golden Age (12A)

Dead-pan humour and fine performances make this collection of urban legends more than the sum of its parts

Director: Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculesc
Starring: Tania Popa, Liliana Mocanu, Alexandru Potocean
Romania, 2008, 2 hours 11 mins, subtitles

Fri 12 March 1.45pm, Sat 13 2.30pm The Courtyard Hereford

A collection of five wry and amusing urban myths that circulated under Ceausescu's paranoid regime, self-styled 'The Golden Age of the Romanian People'. Full of bleak humour, these stories poke fun at the bizarre lengths people had to go to in order to survive - one tense tale tells of a family's attempt to slaughter a pig in their flat without the neighbours hearing. From the director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, this has a similar feel for the extraordinary just beneath the surface of everyday life. Simply told with well-drawn characters, these stories have an easy charm and a canny take on what makes people tick.