Love Sick

Alexandra (“Alex”) loves Cristina (“Kiki”) and Cristina loves Alexandra, but Cristina also loves her brother Sandu and he loves her. All in a day's obsessions in this gentle tale of love and incest in Bucharest. Alex and Kiki are friends, students at the university. Alex, a studious country girl, is just moving into new digs, renting from a cranky elderly lady. Frivolous Kiki lives in the same building, together with her overweening parents and her hunky but angry brother. The girls are involved in a playfully erotic relationship that threatens to distract Alex from her studies; but when Sandu catches wind of what's afoot between them, he decides to aggressively reclaim the affections of his sister. LOVE SICK is refreshingly free of hang-ups, since the main characters never make a big deal about their sexual predilections. Even when they fight, the emphasis is always on their emotions. Cinematography by Alex Sterian shows the stark contrast between Kiki's filthy modern Bucharest and Alex's gorgeous Romanian countryside. (In Romanian with English subtitles) –B.B.