I remember when Ceaucescu fell.

I was in high school and quite attentive to the collapse of communist Eastern Europe. First Poland, over the summer, then several others in early autumn, before the highlight, East Germany—marked by dancing on the wall.

I was safely away in Switzerland, listening to it all on my short wave radio. The cold war’s end didn’t change my life. I was only a few hundred kilometers from history, though.

That’s the story of the delightful Romanian movie 12:08 East of Bucharest. Set on the anniversary of the dictator’s flight from his palace, but in a provincial city somewhere East of Bucharest, it is a funny day-in-the-life story of a small-town TV manager struggling to imagine a role for his city during the revolution.

It all revolves around one question: were we out protesting before 12:08, the moment when Ceausescu fled? Or did we merely celebrate in the streets, now that the danger was passed?

It’s a great question, and delivered in such dead-pan fashion—this is a really funny movie.

Here’s the trailer. I could only find the Romanian trailer and one subtitled in Spanish, so this’ll have to do: