Certain Regard: “Police, Adjective” in Competition

Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, acclaimed in Cannes in 2006 for the much admired 12:08 East of Bucharest, that year’s Caméra d’Or winner, will be presenting his latest, Police, Adjective, to an eager Certain Regard audience and jury. Porumboiu made his Cannes laureate debut by winning Cinéfondation Second Prize in 2004 for his short film A Trip to the City. About Police, Adjective, he says, "I wanted to make a film about language and  its meaning, or rather, its lack of meaning. Cristi is a policeman who enforces laws that are made up of words. One day, his conscience rebels against these words, preventing him from solving a minor misdemeanor."

The misdemeanor involves a teenage boy who has "offered" hashish to two friends. Normally, "offering" drugs is illegal. But Cristi, the policeman, cannot bring himself to make the arrest. He is unwilling to take an action that would, he thinks, ruin the young man’s life.

"I’ve always been attracted to the detective film genre," Porumboiu commented. It invariably draws you in, as a viewer. It’s like a puzzle you have to work out; you have to keep guessing what’s going to happen next. In the end, the mystery is solved, and everything makes sense. When I was working on this film, I examined police procedures and operations almost clinically. I trailed the police the way the police track suspects, convinced that film can bear witness to the meaningless of the world."