București
NonStop,
directed by Dan Chișu (2015), intercuts a number of stories over the course of
a night, linked very loosely by a small 24-hour convenience shop (the titular
NonStop) opposite a block of flats in a dingy part of Bucharest. The shopkeeper, Achim, watches people drift
by, his cynical exterior hiding a compassionate heart. Unlike in Clerks
(1994) the shop is not the focus, though one suspects the influence of the name
Quick Stop Groceries in Kevin Smith’s film on NonStop, and Achim’s
back-to-front baseball cap echoes that worn by Silent Bob.
The heart of the story is the
block itself and a handful of its residents.
A prostitute who wants to leave the city to see her child is driven to
one last trick before she goes to the railway station without giving her pimp
his 50% cut. A pair of low-level
criminals who scam motorists by staging accidents have to charge their battery
before setting off. A taxi driver who
comes to collect the prostitute lends them his cables. While waiting for her at her appointment he
suspects her of intending to skip and phones the intimidating pimp, leading to
violence.
A cheating boyfriend tries to get
his girl back but cannot get into the building to express his contrition,
despite his best efforts; his mobile’s battery has expired and at his wits’ end
he begs a reluctant Achim for help. In
her flat the girlfriend is being consoled by, and torn between, two friends,
one of whom thinks she should dump him, the other arguing he should be given a
second chance. The errant lover throws
stones at her window, but some fall against the window of the flat below in
which, the best realised of the strands, an elderly couple bicker, nagging away
at old hurts.
Through all this, Achim is a
stable point in the little shop, acting different parts as circumstances
require: offering advice, berating or helping those who pass before his
window. As dawn breaks the stories are
resolved, for better or worse (with poetic justice in the case of the scammers,
reconciliation for the estranged lovers, an act of contrition towards the
prostitute by the taxi driver, and an abrupt conclusion to the old couple’s
long marriage). In the final shots the
camera looks down on NonStop far below as life continues around it, the new day
promising fresh dramas on this small stage.
For some reason the film is
billed as a comedy, but while it has its amusing moments the general tone is compassionate
but unsentimental. The one unredeemed
character is the pimp, a boorish, bullying, hypocritical family man who abandons
a wedding to exercise his power over a helpless woman. Otherwise, in its unflinching look at characters
who have not always behaved well one finds selfishness and sadness, but in some
of them also kindness, generosity, and a desire for connection.
The subtitled film is available on
Cinepub.
