After their debut with the by-the-book hospital whistleblower drama Thou Shalt Not Kill [+lee también:
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entrevista: Gabi Virginia Şarga y Cătă…
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Together with another Romanian Days entry, Ana-Maria Comănescu’s Horia [+lee también:
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First, we meet Marcel (Ştefan Mihai), a twentysomething who seems to have just hurt his hand, badly. Dishevelled, untrimmed and sporting a jacket that should have been washed weeks ago, Marcel provokes passers-by by proposing sex to women and by imitating men. One might think that Marcel, besides being totally indifferent to what the good-manners rulebook says about how he should behave in public, is eager to feel something, anything, even if that anything is a slap in the face. Then, Marcel meets Magda (Alice Cora Mihalache), a hotel waitress who offers him a tip for a free, all-you-can-eat breakfast, and Leni (Carina Lăpuşneanu), a nine-year-old suffering from cancer. Marcel might start to feel something after all.

Whimsical, unpredictable and only a tad artificial – as all of its pieces are precisely positioned in the right place in order to click into the story – the film also talks about how we lie to ourselves and to others in order to make life more bearable. “In case of problems, use fiction or wear a colourful, crocheted hat,” the film seems to say. At first, Leni appears to be the most energetic cancer patient ever, but she soon disarms even the most reticent and cold-hearted viewer with her quest through colourful Bucharest, where she leaves even more colourful graffiti stating, “Leni was here.”

Where Elephants Go may not become the second Romanian film to feature a wild beast (after Andrei Tănase’s Day of the Tiger [+lee también:
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entrevista: Andrei Tănase
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At its heart, Where Elephants Go may be a manifesto about both how to live and how to make cinema. This was certainly not the intention of the two writer-directors, but the movie’s free spirit and its proficiency in breaking conventions could prove contagious.

Where Elephants Go was produced by Romanian outfits Green Cat Film, Atelier de Film and Avanpost Media. Reason8 Film is handling its international sales.