Quod erat demonstrandum (2013)

Andrei Gruzsniczki is a new name for me. Quod erat demonstrandum is a restrained story about how political repression affects personal relations. It's the mid 1980's, Romania. Two academics struggle with their relation to the regime and the secret police. The film takes a deep look at the compromises and the fears elicited by a repressive police state. Shot in B&W and using a pared-down palette of settings, Quad erad demonstrandum mostly focuses on the close surroundings of the characters: dinners, job situations, blackouts. The main character, Sorin, is a mathematician who resists the normal procedures. Another colleague, Elena, is planning to join her husband abroad. She works with computers and it is clear that the secret police is poking their nose into her life. The third main character, Alecu, is an investigator from the secret police. The merit of the film is the care it takes to portray the implications of a system for personal relations. It delineates a logic of conquer and divide, a logic of paranoia and disloyalty. One could say that a major theme is how the system is held up and promoted by these emotions.