Humanitarian Aid

Composed of six unconventional vignettes, each one dealing with the late communist period in Romania, a narrative is told through its urban myths from the perspective of ordinary people. The title refers to the alluded "Golden Age" of the last 15 years of Ceaușescu's regime.

Three overlapping stories take place over the course of a week in Bucharest, with characters whose life paths intersect and overlap; often independently of their intentions to emmigrate from Romania, or to stay behind.

Mitu and Elena get to know each other in the course of a vodka drinking contest and discover that they are both dissatisfied with the status quo. Mitu is about to begin military service and Elena is to be married to a man she does not love. They decide they are meant for each other and plan on a different future, one that is on a collision course with the authorities, and start a mad affair.

A Romanian old man goes downtown to call his son in US from a public phone...

One night, two beggars watch a soap opera through the window of a store where a robbery is taking place. Their concern is directed towards the fate of those on the screen.

In a shabby apartment somewhere in Romania, a man obsessively zap between his TV channels despite the wife's complaints and nagging. But where his wife fails, a little man inside the TV will appear and tell Sotul a thing or two about the true mechanics of television zapping...