Offset (3½ Stars)

Romanian culture from Mihai Eminescu to Iuliu Merca.

Brindusa Herghelegiu is the secretary and translator for a printing company in Bucuresti, Romania. She is having an affair with her boss, the owner of the company, Nicu Iorga. The company buys a new offset printing machine and hires a German specialist, Stefan Fischer, to supervise the machine's use. Brindusa falls in love with Stefan, but Nicu refuses to let go. He deliberately sabotages Stefan's work by using the wrong ink in order to discredit him. When Brindusa announces that she intends to marry Stefan and move to Germany the situation becomes critical.

This is a love story, but also a story about Romania. The capital city is run down and poor, but the people are proud. Nicu isn't just a spurned lover, he's a Romanian who is offended that someone has come from a rich country to take away a Romanian woman.

Bucuresti, as I know from my own visits, is the city of barking dogs. You can hear them day and night. This made the film interesting for my dog, Buster. He sat looking at it intensely, paying close attention to every sound. I've awarded the film 3½ stars, but he gives it 5 head tilts.

Buster, Film Critic

This is a German film, but large sections of the dialogue are spoken in Romanian, English and French. It's only been released in Germany, but the DVD has English subtitles.