The Nervous System

In order to make a living, old Nica turns her country house into an anemic, bankrupt "pension". Her only joys are her dog's chirping and the TV news program. Out of loneliness, she sometimes imagines herself the heroine of a soap opera: secretly, Nica is in love with the news anchor Paul. The old woman decides to take a trip to Bucharest, where her daughter, Tuta, a nurse, lives with her concubine, Jenel, and Marilena, her 15-year-old daughter. In the capital, her passion for Paul takes paroxysmal forms. Nica monopolizes the remote control to stay on the same TV channel for which Paul presents the news, which will attract the family's irony. She even goes so far as to look for her "beggar" at the TV station, writes to him, exposing herself to humiliation and mockery. But she resists until illness and shame bring her down. Everything culminates in the old woman's attempt to commit suicide...

• nervous breakdown
• romania