Film review: Child's Pose (15)

Calin Peter Netzer, 112mins. Starring: Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache

The latest offering from the Romanian New Wave is a about a wealthy mother trying to bail out her wastrel son after he kills a teenage boy in a car accident.

In her fur coat and with a cigarette in her hand, Cornelia (brilliantly played by Luminita Gheorghiu) has a touch of Cruella de Vil about her. She is ready to bribe, charm and beg to get her son off.

Razvan Radulescu's screenplay is rich in irony and reversals, highlighting tensions between generations, and between the wealthy elite and the people whose lives are blighted by the elite's unthinking behaviour and desperation to cling to its status.