The Treasure once again demonstrates that even though there is little chance of his breaking down the doors of your next door multiplex, Porumboiu is certainly one of the most original filmmakers to emerge in the recent past.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Treasure may not be a major work from Porumboiu or his filmmaking tradition, but it proves that even cerebral formalism has its soft side.
Aptly named and drolly executed, leading to a transcendently funny, endearing and unexpected finale, The Treasure confirms Corneliu Porumboiu as the joker in the Romanian New Wave pack.
Although not quite the bounty of its title, The Treasure rewards the patient viewer with a quietly enchanting drama.
The Guardian by Jordan Hoffman
Laughs emerge from the recognisable micro-horrors found in modern living, which, if the world was run in the way we all agree it should be run, wouldn’t exist.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
In Porumboiu’s movies, what you see is never what you get, and there are riches to be had if you just keep looking.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
In a manner so sly you could overlook it, Porumboiu invests this tissue-thin premise with the shadows of Romanian history.
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
Filming with long, ironically balanced takes, Porumboiu delivers an ingeniously intricate goofball comedy that evokes heroes of legend while bringing sociological abstractions to mucky life.
Porumboiu’s particular brand of farce is always shot through with the pulse of everyday life and its Sisyphean struggles. He is, simply put, one of our great contemporary observers of the human comedy.
Slant Magazine by Steve Macfarlane
The Treasure is no thriller, but there are moments here that inculcate the stakes with prisoner's-dilemma paranoia.