Politist, Adjectiv

“It’s something that stops me from doing bad, something that I’d afterwards regret.” The film Politist Adjectiv directed by Corneliu Porumboiu begins with a shot of a blurry image. This image serves as an entry into the basic and, at times, simplistic nature of the film. We are introduced to a police officer, Cristi, who is a man unhappy with the nature of the law he must enforce. The movie follows Cristi on the pursuit of criminals who are not justly deemed so. In the beginning, instead of going on a journey to prosecute innocent people, Cristi, goes against not only his boss, but the very structure of Romanian law, when he tries to sway the majority to the side of truth. For his efforts Cristi is ridiculed. When a demand for the definition of the word “conscience” is made by Cristi’s boss, Cristi replies in a simply profound and disheartening manner. Fight as he might Cristi realizes that his efforts to push the law in the direction of change has failed. All throughout the move we are presented with motion propelled foreshadowings; of the continuity of Cristi’s position at the police department. This is seen through the simple scenes in the movie where Cristi goes ignored by his co-workers, his boss, and even his wife. Cristi’s underdog status is made clearer once one observes that there are one too many scenes with the police-officer in a physical position of subservience to others.

Through this film Corneliu Porumboiu offers insight into the very real issue of Romanian law. That blurry image at the beginning of the film takes on the representation of Romanian law itself. There is a deadening of morality that some police officers must force themselves through in order to do his or her job. As stated Cristi’s boss in the film “moral law is to vague...it would lead to chaos.” However, there are those such as Cristi who’s moral blurs into the sharply cut law of Romania, but cannot do much to change such things.