I will start by saying that this is not at all a perfect movie and some people could be bothered by its flaws and it definitely has obvious flaws. But it succeeds where it should have, it creates a story by putting together pieces of actual, documented facts confessed by persons that have suffered many years in Romanian communist prisons - the characters and action are fictional though overall.
I am very interested into the topic and have read a lot about communist prisons and regular people that are now considered saints for their endurance. Most of the movie scenes are placed inside the prison and they are based on true experiences, nothing felt exaggerated, it is a shaking display of the horrors that did happen there. Actually, they were even worse and executioners like Turcanu (who inspired the character Jurganu in the movie) tortured students in ways we couldn't imagine.
As I said, the movie is far from perfect and there is some bad acting you need to overlook at times, but just leave all that out and focus on the evolution of the two brothers in prison (which is also plausible). The movie is shaking, sad, might make you cry or mad that innocent students had to suffer so much for no reason (trials were a joke with vague reasons for giving people 10-25 years for "anti communist activity")
I definitely recommend this movie and would be happy to see more coming on the same topic that focus on telling people the truth about life in communist prisons and the heroic endurance of innocent souls.
I am very interested into the topic and have read a lot about communist prisons and regular people that are now considered saints for their endurance. Most of the movie scenes are placed inside the prison and they are based on true experiences, nothing felt exaggerated, it is a shaking display of the horrors that did happen there. Actually, they were even worse and executioners like Turcanu (who inspired the character Jurganu in the movie) tortured students in ways we couldn't imagine.
As I said, the movie is far from perfect and there is some bad acting you need to overlook at times, but just leave all that out and focus on the evolution of the two brothers in prison (which is also plausible). The movie is shaking, sad, might make you cry or mad that innocent students had to suffer so much for no reason (trials were a joke with vague reasons for giving people 10-25 years for "anti communist activity")
I definitely recommend this movie and would be happy to see more coming on the same topic that focus on telling people the truth about life in communist prisons and the heroic endurance of innocent souls.