"An Unforgettable Summer," which opens today at the Charles in rotation with "Ladybird, Ladybird," is the rare film that tries the tricky narrative device of the faux naive narrator. In other words, from the bland title downward, it appears to be a sentimental look back at a wondrous childhood event, which the narrator, now the grown son of the family in question, still treasures. But as his memoir progresses we realize what he doesn't -- that the events are terrifying, depressing, depraved and resonant.
Indeed, the story that is told feels far more Conradian than anything. It's about a bitter quandary in the backwater of a grim and forgotten Balkan war. Here's what it's really about: the horror, the horror.
Set in royal Romania in 1925, it watches the deconstruction of a young military family. When the beautiful Marie-Therese Von Debretsky (Kristin Scott-Thomas of "Four Weddings and a Funeral") turns down the advances of a Romanian general, she, her husband the --ing Captain Dumitriu (Claudiu Bleont) and their three children are sent off to the dusty border, a contested region between Bulgaria and Romania.
What they discover there is a violent but unpublicized guerrilla war being waged by the flamboyantly incompetent Romanian troops and the stealthy Macedonian bandits in the pay of the Bulgars. It's an atrocity-rich environment. The Macedonians have a unique calling card -- they cut the lips off the men they kill.
Quickly enough, poor Captain Dumitriu finds himself in a quandary. When a platoon is ambushed, slaughtered and delipped, headquarters orders him to retaliate by rounding up and executing the local peasants.
He knows, of course, that the peasants are apolitical and have nothing to do with the massacre; worse, his indefatigably buoyant wife has bonded with them and he is caught between duty and love. But other things are obvious. If he refuses to kill the peasants, it's not as if they'll go free -- other officers will have no qualms about ordering the Maxims to fire.
In the world of 1925, honor was still just barely possible. Thus it's pleasant to report that the banty little captain lives by his, even if the cost is high. Claudiu Bleont, an actor with whom I'm not familiar, is exceedingly effective in this role. His Captain Dumitriu appears initially to be a little martinet, with his cigar, his sleek hair, monocle and comic opera uniform. But gradually the performance opens up and you see a commanding officer with great moral complexity grappling with a grotesque problem.
So it is that "An Unforgettable Summer" turned out to be a completely unforgettable movie.
"An Unforgettable Summer"
Starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and Claudiu Bleont
Directed by Lucian Pintilie
Released by MK2 Productions
Unrated (nudity, violence)
***