Comatogen is an interesting, well-made film from Romania by director Igor Cobileanski. Its mosaic structure driven by the perspectives of multiple characters is reminiscent of Kurosawa’s famous “Rashomon” and also a current trend in Romanian cinema. Forty-something-year-old nurse Alina (Daniela Nane) gets a job offer she cannot refuse: she will take extra care for the comatose patient Klaus (veteran actor Gheorghe Visu) for the extra money paid by his daughter Mihaela (Ada Lupu, in her second collaboration with Cobileanski). The screening of Comatogen took place on Saturday, May 2, at the Laemmle NoHo, as part of SEEfest.
Daniela Nane plays a hospital nurse who is assigned to monitor the statis of an elderly comatose patient named Klaus who is on life support. On the home front, she still supports her twenty-something-year-old son Radu (Theodor Soptelea) who seems to be down on his luck regarding job opportunities. Novelty comes on the level of her private life, as she reconnects with her high school friend Pavel (Andrei Aradits) and starts a relationship with him. That also serves as an opportunity to take care of Radu, as Pavel has a real estate agency that might need a new recruit and Radu seems fit for the job.
Meanwhile at the hospital, Alina has responsibility for the comatose patient Klaus, who is on life support after his serious stroke. His artist daughter Mihaela keeps coming to the hospital to make sure of the exact condition of her father, as she is the only surviving family member and her own mother died while she was still an infant. Mihaela is very demanding and brings along Cristina (Petronela Grigorescu) who has been the maid and main care-giver for Klaus for twenty years. Cristina stays in the hospital room with Klaus much of the day after bringing him coffee and a clean shirt daily (not that he can use either).
In the first and longest part which serves as exposition, we see events from Alina’s perspective. We get pulled in the work of Alina at the hospital and her dressing to go to a school reunion of classmates from 20 years beforehand. Two things are odd: Her favorite red gem stone earrings are missing and Radu has supposed taken her laptop to a repair shop. Radu does not have a job and when Alina finds a too-easy offer from Pavel to take Radu in as a trainee in his real estate office, that seems suspiciously strange.
Pavel seems to be very attracted a middle-aged Alina, even though he is married. Is a romance going to bloom? A crisis ensues when Alina cannot find her son Radu and Pavel reports that some 18,000 Euros are missing from his office. Alina begins to be her illusions of romance dashed and her life about to be destroyed. She learns that Ravel is in the hospital, looking very beat up.
This first installment of the story is followed by three others – those of Radu, Pavel and Mihaela – which come in the subsequent, shorter chapters. Radu’s chapter reveals his motivation for stealing the money from Pavel’s office. Pavel’s narrative reveals that his intention towards Alina were never sincere but based on a seduction idea in a bet with a male friend. Pavel reveals the close-circuit video of his office and see the evidence of Radu stealing the money (which he showed to Alina beforehand). Then Pavel tracks down Radu and we find out why Radu is bruised and beaten.
Michaela’s account is the most insightful, as we return to original situation with her father Klaus, who is a wealthy man with a fine old mansion in Sinaia near Brasov (in Romania) that he does not wish to sell. His greedy daughter who is a painter wants to sell the property and move to Berlin. She argues with her father to point where he cannot stand it any longer. Now he is in the hospital in a coma. At some point, Michaela seeks help from Alina, who is his nurse and she knows from talking to Klaus’ maid Cristina that Alina is desperate.
Whatever information the viewers glean constantly gets challenged and updated by new findings and revelations. The result is a perpetually shifting perspective, requiring the viewer’s attention and an investment that keeps the ethical apparatus ready to pass and overturn judgements. This approach might recall Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon (1950), but in the script written by the filmmaker together with Alin Boeru, and in Cobileanski’s interpretation of it, it turns out to be more akin to Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997).
At the Q&A after the screening, lead actress Daniela Nane was present to provide insights on her experience of making the film. She said it was a pleasure working tihe director Cobileanski because he is incredibly organized and making the shooting go so smoothly. The film Comatogen has been nominated a number awards at this year’s Romanian Film Awards in May 2026 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Leading Actress, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor. Diretor Igor Cobileanski (born February 24, 1974) is a prominent Moldovan film director, screenwriter, and editor known for works like The Unsaved(2013), Eastern Business (2016), and the TV series Umbre (2018). His career spans shorts, features, and TV series, including Baieti Destepti (2023) and his latest film Comatogen (2025).
