The Thistles of The Bărăgan

Rumania's entry in the 1958 Cannes Film Festival was the excessively melodramatic Ciulinii Barganului. The title translates as Fools of Baragan, 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 Baragun and Russia's revolutionary leaders are all but impossible to miss. It would have been nice, however, if the story had not been told in such a heavy-handed, spell-it-all-out fashion.