Tuesday, After Christmas
Directed by Radu Muntean

***1/2

Aurora
Directed by Cristi Puiu
**1/2

The recent Romanian New Wave kicked off with a series of films that used small personal stories to explore broader social and political issues that are part of the country’s past and present.  2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, for example, offered an almost moment-by-moment account of the last night in an elderly man’s life and, in the process, exposed a broken health care system.  2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days followed a young woman’s attempt to have an abortion after dictator Nicolae Ceausescu outlawed the procedure in the ‘80s.  And in last year’s Police, Adjective, a cop tries to navigate around his department’s excessive bureaucracy to give a young offender a second chance.

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