The Way I Spent the End of the World () is the feature-length film debut of Romanian director Cătălin Mitulescu. It was released on September 15, 2006.
Synopsis The film is about 17-year-old Eva and 7-year-old Lilu, siblings living in Bucharest, Romania during the final years of the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After Eva is expelled from her high school for her uncooperative attitude, she is sent to a technical school where she meets Andrei, with whom she plans to escape by swimming across the Danube into Yugoslavia and then relocating to Italy. Lilu and his friends volunteer for a choir scheduled to perform for Ceaușescu, hoping this will give them a chance to assassinate him.
Cast and characters
The Matei family Dorotheea Petre as Eva Matei Timotei Duma as Lalalilu Matei Carmen Ungureanu as Maria Matei Mircea Diaconu as Grigore Matei Jean Constantin as Uncle Florică
Lilu's friends Valentino Marius Stan as Tarzan Marian Stoica as Silvică
Eva's friends Cristian Văraru as Andrei, Eva's friend Ionuț Becheru as Alexandru Vomică, Eva's boyfriend
Others Valentin Popescu as the music teacher Grigore Gonta as Ceaușică Florin Zamfirescu as the school director Monalisa Basarab as choir teacher Corneliu Țigancu as Bulba Nicolae Enache Praida as Titi
Awards Dorotheea Petre - Premiul de interpretare feminină (Female actor award) Dorotheea Petre - Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress, 2006 Cannes Film Festival
Alternative titles Comment j'ai fêté la fin du monde (French title) How I Celebrated the End of the World (alternative translation)
See also Romanian New Wave List of submissions to the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film List of Romanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
External links Official website
Profile at cinemagia.ro The Way I Spent the End of the World at Film Movement - US Distributor
Study on 1989 in Romanian cinema: https://www.academia.edu/3671294/Post-Heroic_Revolution_Depicting_the_1989_Events_in_the_Romanian_Historical_Film_of_the_Twenty-First_Century