Balanța is a Romanian film, available on Netflix, that appeared in 1992. It reached cinemas again in 2020, in a different version.
The film Balanța is a Romania-France co-production, directed by Lucian Pintilie. It became the first Romanian film restored in digital 4K format. It was available in cinemas in 2020. The world premiere took place at the Lumière 2019 Grand Lyon Film Festival, a festival founded in memory of the Lumière brothers, the inventors of cinema.
The Romanian film on Netflix, the first Romanian production restored in 4K
The process of restoring the film took six months and nine people worked on it. The 4K digitization of the film’s original negative was done in France, and the restoration process was later done in Romania.
So, the story of “Balanța”, the first Romanian production restored in digital 4K format by Fundația9 and BRD – Groupe Société Générale, is set in Bucharest, in 1988. Nela, a young teacher, takes care of her father, a former colonel in Security, now dying. He wants his body to be used for medical research, but the University refuses, since its refrigerators are broken.
Nela goes to the province, where she was assigned to a school. She meets Mitica, a doctor at the local hospital who, like her, does not accept compromises and is full of dreams and optimism. The two disturb everyone around them with their attitude, but they will manage to face life’s challenges, as if they were touched by divine grace.
“For Lucian Pintilie it is a won bet. The director resorted to the formula of a direct cinema, without formal ornaments, with thrilling and humorous episodes, with an admirable cursive narrative”, Dana Duma – 1992.
As a reference, the Romanian film with Maia Morgenstern was selected at the 45th edition of the Cannes festival in 1992.
The cast of the film is full of famous names from the world of Romanian actors. It includes names such as Maia Morgenstern, Răzvan Vasilescu, Marcel Iureș, Gheorghe Visu, Victor Rebengiuc, Mihai Constantin, Emil Hossu or Magda Catone.
