The Thistles of The Bărăgan

Rumanias entry in the 1958 Cannes Film Festival was the excessively melodramatic Ciulinii Bărăganului The title translates as Fools of Bărăgan in reference to a band of beleaguered feudal Rumanian peasants But these are no fools instead they are fearless freedom fighters organizing a brave though foredoomed revolt against the tyranny of the landowners The parallels drawn between the people of Bărăgan and Russias revolutionary leaders are all but impossible to miss It would have been nice however if the story had not been told in such a heavyhanded spellitallout fashion