Trailer for Child's Pose.
60-year-old Cornelia (the phenomenal Luminita Gheorghiu) leads a life of privilege, social power and abundant material wealth in contemporary Bucharest, but life is not perfect. More than anything in the world, she longs for her 34 year-old son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) to reciprocate her unreserved affections. But the pair barely speak, something the domineering Cornelia blames on Barbu's live-in girlfriend, who has a child from a previous relationship.
The balance of power irrevocably shifts one cold evening when Barbu is involved in a tragic car accident and runs down a child on a highway, and Cornelia is thrust back into his life. Seeing her chance to regain control, she commences a frighteningly well-orchestrated campaign to save her son from prison. But the germaphobic, foul-mouthed Barbu, boiling with anger yet hopelessly emasculated and infantilized, refuses to play along...
Propelled by Gheorghui's towering, tour-de-force performance and a razor-sharp attention to class and generational resentments, Netzer's engrossing film lays bare the moral bankruptcy of upper-class Romanian society and its institutions in expert fashion. Disquieting but also compassionate, this examination of guilt and the crippling effects of loss makes for a fascinating, unforgettable cinema experience.
Child's Pose became a national talking point upon release in Romania earlier this year, breaking 20 year-old box office records.