Two series that not so long ago could have been said to have been created “behind the Iron Curtain,” a simple name so appreciated by those who consider thinking a waste of time. We talk about the Polish answers and the second season of the Romanian Umbre.
Apart from the Iron Curtain, the five episodes of the Polish series that Netflix shows are a clear example of the globalization of tastes and habits: Marcin Kania (Arkadiusz Jakubik), the main character, is a former heavy metal star and separate absolute alcoholic family for his addiction. In his few moments of clarity, he devotes himself to searching for his missing son and remembers what he told him the last time they saw each other. It is a kind of journey to the end of the Céline night with a surprise ending and the special obsession of Polish filmmakers to show a standard of living that goes beyond the supposedly authentic one.
The second of the three existing seasons of Umbre (HBO) is already reaching areas close to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Relu Oncescu is a taxi driver in Bucharest and since nothing is as it seems, he turns out to be the armed wing of the Mafia Capitan, a lifestyle that his family and friends know nothing about and which allows him to torture the boss's debtors and to kill with astonishing ease.
The protagonist, Serban Pavlu, acts so expressionlessly that he could lead any CSI series in which the star's essential condition must be hermeticism. Unlike the Polish series, the Romanian makers show a time and a much more believable country: shabby and poor.
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