Old man John Tarwater and young lawyer Elam Harnish, gripped by the "gold fever" leave for Alaska, embarking on the adventure of a new hard and torturous life, which, due to famine, John Tarwater falls victim to.
Based on a theatrical text by Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), who was a bitter and funny witness of the turn-of-the-20th-century Romanian bourgeois mores, Carnival Scenes manages to preserve and further enhance the slightly hysteric atmosphere of his plays. Pintilie creates a strange combination of carnival scenes which is brought to the screen as a burlesque, fast-paced, screwball comedy with a meditative undertone. This film was banned in Romania for a decade until the death of Ceausescu in 1989 and was only released after the 1989 revolution.
The movie is set in 18th century Maramureș region of Romania. The Romanian officer Grigore Pintea return to his village and finds out that his parents were killed, and other villagers were tortured because they protested against the unfair treatment of Bartolok Graff. He deserts the Austrian army and he becomes an outlaw. He is joined by many peasants and so his band manages to occupy 2 fortresses.
In a mountain village, two kids find a roman fibulae. Trying to find more, they stumble upon the notes of a history professor about a Roman settlement Lisidava. They are trying to locate it.
In 1970s Romania, Laura, a young architect, becomes pregnant by her married lover, Titel. Desperate and alone, she travels to a remote town for an illegal abortion. There, she meets Irina, a local girl who tries to change her mind. A quiet, devastating portrait of control, shame, and the cost of forbidden choices.