In 2016, Two Lottery Tickets [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Paul Negoescu
fiche film] became something that the Romanian film industry had not seen in a long time: a profitable local film. Written and directed by Paul Negoescu, the comedy centring on three provincial men who win the lottery and then lose their winning ticket was the first domestic film that convinced Ro Image, the Romanian distributor of Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures blockbusters, to diversify. The film’s considerable popularity is deemed to have paved the way for the success of other low-budget, independent comedies that catered to local audiences not usually interested in arthouse cinema. Seven years later, the sequel, Another Lottery Ticket, has just had its world premiere at the 22nd Transilvania International Film Festival.

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In the sequel, we are reunited with Sile (Dragoş Bucur), Dinel (Dorian Boguţă) and Pompiliu (Alexandru Papadopol). Seven years may have passed since the original film, and their hair may be whiter now and their bellies bigger, but they are exactly the same: penniless and clueless. We see Sile being released after spending a year in prison and being welcomed by his two best friends. And now, Sile has a new idea for getting rich quick: crypto-mining. With the help of a local nerd (Eduard Cîrlan), the three amigos succeed in mining the equivalent of €6 million (the exact amount they won on the lottery in the first film) in crypto-currency, but then they lose the USB stick holding their entire fortune…

An important part of the first film’s success was down to the “If you don’t laugh, you get your money back” campaign, and most likely, no viewer asked for his or her money back at the end of the screenings, as watching that movie in a cinema venue, alongside a bunch of other viewers who really want to be entertained, can lead to contagious laughter. And the campaign could equally be used for the sequel, which remains faithful to the core of the original film, showing the same characters in situations that are familiar without being repetitive, and novel enough without alienating the fan base.

One question might preoccupy the audience: are the protagonists really lucky or tremendously unlucky? We might never be able to answer this question, but at least there is one certainty here: they are truly clueless. Even when this cluelessness works against the story, making it somewhat contrived, it is a pleasure to watch Sile, Dinel and Pompiliu making the wrong decision at every turn, letting themselves be overwhelmed by situations that, one should hope, would be simple enough to get out of (or not even get into, for that matter), even for a child.

Although the film doesn’t excel at character development and the three protagonists do not change at all by the end, Another Lottery Ticket offers a journey through various typologies that make it entertaining and relatable no matter what country the viewer is from. We have the gossipy neighbour, the stingy friend, the guy who gets the job done without ever receiving credit for it, the jealous boyfriend and so on, all in quick succession, thus keeping the audience entertained – which is exactly what this film was meant for. Perhaps the funniest inclusion here is Iulian Postelnicu playing Ilie, a policeman who may or may not be the same character from Negoescu’s previous film, Men of Deeds [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Paul Negoescu
fiche film].

An exclusively Romanian production, Another Lottery Ticket was produced by Block Media Management, and was co-produced by Papillon Film, Youbesc Aya, Dax Tandem, Actoriedefilm.ro, Vent d'Est and Asociația 7771. Ro Image will distribute the comedy domestically this autumn.