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Romania, France, Sweden · 2015
1h 33m
Director Radu Muntean
Starring Teodor Corban, Iulian Postelnicu, Oxana Moravec, Ionut Bora
Genre Drama
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After being the sole unfortunate witness to a domestic quarrel that ends up in murder, Patrascu finds himself at odds with two very close neighbors: one is the bizarre murderer. The other is his very own conscience.
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To suggest that One Floor Below operates at a simmer would be to exaggerate the level of heat being applied to the pot. This is one that Muntean is happy to let bubble intermittently, cranking the tension around on a scarcely-moving winch.
Like a pot set to bubble only every few seconds, the drama is tightly measured to ensure a controlled level of tension that remains discreetly constant, nicely melding with Muntean’s skilled construction of three-dimensional bourgeois life.
Muntean is so careful to avoid any whisper of contrivance or manipulation that he doesn't even land on any particular conclusion or moral.
The Guardian by Jordan Hoffman
This is detached, flat film-making at its most bare. You figure out which lines of dialogue deserve to be underlined.
Screen International by Lee Marshall
For those prepared to invest the time, One Floor Below quietly builds into a devastating portrait of a weak man and the weak society he represents, both of which have lost their moral compasses.
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
A very fine if not exactly groundbreaking film about, as the title hints, perspective and distance.
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