Plot: In grim, dull Vaslui, Cristi is a young police officer, conscientious, laconic, recently married to Anca, a teacher. He's tailing a kid who smokes pot and may be supplying his friends. Cristi dislikes the assignment: the kid's clearly not a dealer, an arrest would ruin his life, and, Cristi assumes that Romania will soon tolerate marijuana. His superior tells him flatly that the law is the law and to finish the case with a quick arrest. Cristi wants to follow the informant, a youth whose father is a builder. Cristi watches, he smokes, he writes reports, he wants to meet with the prosecutor. Can a cop have a conscience? Is the noun being modified "procedural" or "state"?
Alternative Plot: Young detective Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is pursuing drug peddlers in post-Communist Romania. When he's assigned to bust a group of pot-smoking teenagers because of one boy's testimony, he believes the witness is setting up his friend Victor (Radu Costin), who would never place the blame where it belongs: on his brother. Unwilling to pursue Victor, Cristi tries to scrap the case, jeopardizing his career in the process and fueling the suspicions of his superiors.
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