Rob Munday

As a teenager, meeting the parents of your girlfriend/boyfriend can already be somewhat of a strained encounter, but if the father in this situation believes he’s just heard you having sex – the tension is about to reach new heights. In Paul Negoescu’s 2010 short Derby, the Romanian director turns the discomfort up to 11, by playing this exact scenario out from the point-of-view of the distressed Dad as he interrogates his teenage daughter’s boyfriend and starts an unnecessary dinnertime argument over football.

Presenting his story from the parent’s perspective is a clever move from Negoescu, in fact, it’s what makes Derby successful. Told from the point-of-view of the daughter, or even her boyfriend, this is just another coming-of-age tale attempting to tackle that tricky transition from adolescence to adulthood. Shifting the focus though means that Derby skilfully avoids this pitfall and instead becomes an uncomfortable, low-key comedy centred around a shift in the dynamic of a family household.

Centred around young love and parenthood, there should be something in Negoescu’s film we all can relate to. Whether you cringe for the daughter, sympathise with the mother or feel for the father, the director has all the angles covered in this tale of domestic drama. Whichever family member you side with though, this is car-crash, cringeworthy viewing at its best, it gets so uncomfortable to watch you want to look away…but you can’t.

Premiering at the 60th edition of the Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Golden Bear, Derby went on to play festivals worldwide, winning a vast array of critical acclaim along the way. Since making Derby back in 2010, Negoescu has gone on to create two further shorts (Orizont & Monica se întoarce) and two features (A Month in Thailand & Two Lottery Tickets).