True film fans, by now, are accustomed to counting the days between Romanian releases. But Police, Adjective, a dazzling new dark comedy from director Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest) is something else again. A funny, thought-provoking detective story delivered in deceptively casual vérité, this brilliant freewheeling film concerns a dedicated young detective assigned to watch a teenage boy for the heinous crime of smoking pot.
The cop, who feels the offence is far too minor to warrant prosecution, tries to reason with his superiors: “In the Czech Republic they smoke in the street,” he shrugs. “I’m convinced I a few years the law will change here too.” Denizens of oppressive states where even concoctions thrown together from dandelions and cloves may well smile and shake their weary heads at his naïveté.
What happens next is both banal and farcical. It hardly matters that the policeman’s conscience is troubled or that the evidence is entirely circumstantial. In the ludicrous world of legal bureaucracy, there’s no room for sense or rational thinking. The film’s playful use of language furthers the notion that we’re stuck in an illogical mobius loop.
No wonder Police, Adjective scooped the FIPRESCI award and Un Certain Regard at last year’s Cannes film festival and many other gongs since. Don’t miss it.