“Wedding in Bessarabia” juxtaposes the folksiness of tradition with the innovations of modernity, the personal with the political and the increasingly westernized Romania of today with the authoritarian Romania of yesteryear. (The groom’s jaded mother even waxes nostalgic for the Ceausescu period, offering an “at least the trains ran on time” line of argument.) This film, with its memorable personas, its flourishes of MTV-style editing and its happy ending, might hold the greatest appeal for anybody intimidated by the prospect of plunging into a national cinema they didn’t even know existed until very recently.

Dan Sullivan, University of Wisconsin