Killing Time

Prologue: An elderly man talks in monologue and smokes his last cigarette. Elliptical panning of the camera to his counterpart. The viewer is well advised not to completely put his/her trust in the images on show. Two hit men await in the victim's flat, waiting for the latter. One of them attempts to kill the time by telling anecdotes, noticeably testing the patience of his partner in crime.
Florin Piersic Jr, responsible for script, direction and editing, staged this unconventional chamber play with the help of an amateur actor: Cristian Ioan Gutău. He expertly plays one of the most cold-blooded killers ever to be seen in cinema. Alongside him the director also shines as a contract killer plagued by personal problems, who heads off to buy cigarettes at the most inopportune of moments. The film is divided into chapters, which grow longer as the plot becomes more and more enigmatic. Initially the tales of the somewhat moronic hit man are amusing, in the course of the film however the laughter freezes in one's throat. KILLING TIME is suffused by such a single-minded consistency that even a production such as RESERVOIR DOGS appears harmless in comparison, though it can be presumed the latter served as a source of inspiration for the former. The plot and screenplay of KILLING TIME have a relentless quality that allow the film to be interpreted as a commentary on the political situation in contemporary Romania; the imagery and dialogues contain an incomparable cynicism, the result of which is highly entertaining and unbearable at the same time. A film with the potential to become a cult classic.