AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

After researching the subject of POLICE, ADJECTIVE—which begins with the depiction of a cop on the beat and ends with a comic inquiry into the meaning of the word “conscience”—filmmaker Corneliu Porimboiu (12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, AFI FEST 2006) realized “that the truth of my character lies in the small things, in his daily routine and in a certain time of being and reacting. I think that this is what cinema makes fresh: a time of being.” The policeman at the heart of Porimboiu’s absurdist inquiry is Cristi (the brilliant Dragos Bucur), assigned to tail a high school kid suspected of drug dealing. Cristi, like the film audience, waits and watches as this stunning film, builds toward an unforgettable face-off between Cristi and his boss (the inimitable Vlad Ivanov) that forces everyone on screen and off to consider the meaning of what one sees and the words one uses.

–Robert Koehler