Weekend Cu Mama (Weekend With My Mother)

This Stere Gulea movie tells a story that to my eyes is common and not really particular to a specific country that has immigration related problems, as the story belongs to any country where mothers leave younger children with relatives so they can pursue better income in other countries were they would find better lifestyles. So with this said, the film totally captured my attention because one very special performance by Adela Popescu that I couldn’t take my eyes from the screen while she was on. She totally mesmerized me and was a huge surprise to find that this is her first feature film role, as she’s better known as a Romanian soap opera actress.

The film tells the story of Luiza that comes back to Romania from Spain after leaving 15 years ago. In Spain she has a husband and children, but her sister had a stroke and decides to come back to also see her daughter Cristina and her estranged father with whom she has not speak since she got pregnant. When she arrives her brother-in-law doesn’t tell her that Cristina ran away from home. So she starts looking for her and when she finds her, Luiza not only finds a stranger young heavy drug addict with a 2-years-old girl but also finds some awful truths about what her life has been. The not happy finale is constructed by integrating a plot twist that unfortunately is so common to many countries and that particularly in this movie makes the story to lose credibility, as definitively the transition is not well developed, when everything that happens before has been.

I was really hoping to find in this movie the outstanding new Romanian cinema wave style that I highly enjoy, but unfortunately the movie as a movie looks and feel like “normal” European cinema, which definitively is not good for me. Still the style makes it a lot easier to watch for those that enjoy European cinema, as has acceptable production values, even when the script definitively needed more work to continue with the credible story until the very end.

The one thing that this movie has and for which I will recommend this movie is the performance by Adela Popescu as Cristina. Not only her transformation is remarkable (in real life she’s blonde and in the movie she has red hair that totally makes her another person) but her acting skills are really promising and definitively I’m looking forward to see her in future films. She definitively is the only reason why I highly enjoyed this film.

So if you’re in the mood to watch for entertainment purposes a shocking for some drama about the realities of life in many countries where mothers leave little children behind, then I suggest to give this movie a try as you will not be disappointed with Popescu performance, even when the story is rushed at the end.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion