Comedies have never had much of a place in the Romanian new wave. Cristian Mungiu’s celebrated 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) is about two women trying to obtain an illegal abortion, and his Beyond the Hills (2012) deals with young women who share a history of sexual abuse as orphans. Such acclaimed films as Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective (2009), about a young detective who’s put in his place for questioning the country’s harsh drug laws, and Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), chronicling the last night of an ailing old man, might be studded with darkly comic moments, but their dramatic arcs bend toward tragedy.
Toni Erdmann turns into a comedy of role reversal—Winfried the mischievous child, Ines the annoyed parent—when the father, heartbroken over the death of his old dog, follows his daughter back to Bucharest for an unexpected visit. The friction between their lifestyles causes her endless problems; Winfried, pulled into an evening out with the Romanian CEO who is her most important client, makes her look foolish in front of her colleagues and so flusters her that she herself commits a serious business gaffe. The tension once glimpsed back in Germany begins to break the surface of their relationship. “Are you really a human?” Winfried asks Ines after watching her squire the CEO’s wife around a shopping mall. Ines is visibly wounded by this remark, and Winfried later apologizes, but she has her own resentments stored up, telling him, “I know men your age with ambitions, but who cares?” When Winfried allows Ines to oversleep and miss a string of important business calls, she flies into a rage, and their visit is over.
Directed by Maren Ade
