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No matter how hard they form, how fragile they are: human relations are the only things that make a life meaningful. The feat ure film How To Make Friends observes these relations, the possibilities, and impossibilities of friendship. Based on seven short stories the film is a poetic ensemble drama in 90 minutes.
The stories take place in Eastern–Europe in the 80’s. A time when people lived in the communist regime and could only rely on human connections, on each other. The hope in these relations meant survival. This place is full of the endless controversy between sublime and mediocrity: huge unhealable scars on the mighty landscapes, buildings, objects- on the people’s faces.
The stories seem to run simultaneously. One morning a confident landlord observes his shy tenant through his window when unexpectedly he suggests spending the day together, much to the surprise of the tenant. They drive out to a nearby salty lake. They drift on the water next to each other and according to the landlord, they get to be friends. On the same morning a red Dacia is on its way with a married couple. Their silence is full of tension. They are arranging an adoption. Meanwhile, in the mountains, a ranger breaks up with his lover.
Sometimes it is the location, in other cases, it is a character appearing in a number of episodes that links the stories together. As an example, on the lower Danube, on board of a ship a 50-year-old man, a manager of a hotel accompanies a coffin. The corpse of his dead lover, a 30 years old prostitute, is inside, and now he has to take her to the family. The same ship is carrying two diminutive youngsters as well: the 18 years old Petke, and Barbara. While the two seem to be destined to be friends, they try to find against it. However, they must learn that the captain has a secret plan with them.
On the same morning at a gas station on the way, an embarrassed countryman is having a drink with a prostitute he has slept with. Somewhere near, a bus driver has hit someone on the road. Before turning himself to the police, he wants to take a room in a hotel to collect himself, causing much trouble for the receptionist. Later on it turns out that the woman he hit was the one in the coffin, and the hotel is ran by the manager we’ve met on the ship.
As the title suggests, the film does not lack of irony. Tragedy has the same significance as the tiniest gestures of everyday life which brings every story to verge of absurdity- both comic and melancholic.