Thea, a researcher from an institute for nuclear studies, leaves for a vacation but ends up on an adventure at the boundary between fantasy and reality. On the TV screen the image of a man appears who disappeared 20 years ago after a nuclear explosion. She falls in love with this picture and convinces a colleague and close friend that they can bring back the man who disappeared through a strange reverse process. Her only way to communicate with this picture however is via the TV screen, and her love can only be communicated through dreaming.
Cinematography
Ghostly CRT glow turns television into portal.
Direction
Veroiu weaponizes Romanian austerity into uncanny atmosphere.
Director
Mircea Veroiu
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made under Ceaușescu's regime, the film smuggles existential dread past censors by wrapping it in 'scientific' romance. The nuclear institute setting wasn't accidental—Romania's first reactor went online the same year.
Director Veroiu allegedly destroyed the original negative in a dispute, making surviving prints rare. The degraded, flickering quality many viewers encounter? Ironically perfect for a film about decaying signals and lost transmissions.
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