The World According to Ion B.

The Romanian drifter Ion Barladeanu lives in the courtyard of a housing complex, among the residents' garbage. One would not immediately assume that the 60-year-old is a remarkable exponent of the pop art movement, but this drunkard has suitcases full of the powerful and subversive collages he has been making since the 1970s. For all these years, he drew inspiration from his boundless love of cinema and his similarly boundless loathing of Ceausescu's communist regime. When someone tips off gallery owner Dan Popescu about this artistic treasure trove, he takes the vagrant under his wing and tries to give him a new life. But the engaging Ion still needs some time to adapt to his status as an artist and all the fuss that comes along with it. Documentary filmmaker Alexander Nanau follows him in the run-up to the exhibition. Ever alert to the rolling camera, Ion acts as if in his own New Wave film. After a successful exhibition opening and international recognition, he returns to the village of his birth, which he fled as a young man. A moving portrait of a remarkable and unique talent, this film also presents us with a Romania still weighed down by the burden of its communist past.