MirceaDaneliuc is a vibrant and inventive storyteller, critically acclaimed for his films Microphone Test (PFA '85)and Glissando. In Jacob, he has one of the most important Romanian films of the year, recently featured atthe New York Film Festival. It is a heartbreaking tale, set in the thirties, of a man beset with hardships whotries too late to assert his authority and regain his dignity. Jacob is a gold miner in Transylvania, a goodfather and a hard worker; but life's joys are too scarce. Added to oppression is humiliation when Jacob issuspected of the theft of gold from a recently discovered lode. As punishment, he and his workmate arereassigned to a mine far from home. Against the backdrop of exhausting labor and seemingly endlessjourneys between work and home, tension builds in Jacob that must end either in change or death. The film'slong, nearly wordless finale is both terrifying and eloquent.