Closer to the Moon
Bucharest 1959. A spectacular Bank heist has the country in an uproar. In post-war Communist Romania it is an unimaginable slap in the face to the iron fisted authorities. Four men and a woman are arrested, tried, convicted and while waiting for their execution... are forced to star in a propaganda film about the crime. All five protagonists were heroes of the resistance during the Second World War and highly placed members of Romanian society. They clearly knew they would be caught and executed.
12 October 1979, Husi, Romania
1990, Wales, UK
1997, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland
16 January 1975, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania
5 August 1963, London, England, UK
1973, Bury, Lancashire, England, UK
1946, UK
1951, Manchester, England, UK
12 December 1982, Bucharest, Romania
1927, London, England, UK
12 December 1978, Iasi, Romania
28 September 1998, Berlin, Germany
26 April 1968, Lugoj, Romania
19 March 1963
April 20, 2015
A provocative, darkly comedic, absurdist drama - based on a true story.
April 15, 2015
From Romania, of all places, comes a breath of fresh air, far above the usual action film Hollywood keeps churning out with pointless abandon.
November 12, 2015
Caranfil's unlikely, odd little film is quietly moving - all the more so because it is true.
April 19, 2015
Although based on a true story, 'Closer to the Moon' comes across on screen as artificial and befuddling. However, quality production values make it easy on the eyes.
November 09, 2015
It has some moments that effectively convey the weirdness with which it deals; but for the most part it's a missed opportunity, marred by a lack of narrative conviction and tonal cohesion.
April 16, 2015
"Closer to the Moon" draws on many of the same facts that appear in "The Great Communist Bank Robbery," but in the service of a less adventurous movie with familiar Western actors, English-language dialogue and badly strained uplift.
May 20, 2016
All the major facts of Moon are historically accurate, but the reasons behind the events remain a bit murky. However, Caranfil's speculations are more than persuasive.
April 24, 2015
Closer to the Moon is an unremarkable reenactment of a remarkable story.
April 15, 2015
Caranfil, who's made several previous features in Romanian, struggles throughout to find the right tone, mostly in vain.
November 12, 2015
The story is so quintessentially Romanian, it had better been made in Romanian, with Romanian actors.
April 17, 2015
There are a lot of moving moments in this film, and it's to writer-director Nae Caranfil's credit that he's able to tease out the logic in this mostly enjoyable, if a little all-over-the-place, dark comedy.
November 12, 2015
It's always a pleasure to see Mark Strong in a lead role -- too often he's wasted as baddies and bosses. In Closer to the Moon he gets his most interesting part in a while.
