Mihai and Miha picnic to riverside on a sunny day. While in the midst of constant quarrel, they accidentally hit Ana-Violeta, a young prostitute. She joined the picnic and revealed the pain and truth between the two lovers. Hooked, a debut feature by Adrian Sitaru, is a lyrical and subtle allegory about trust, love, and relationship. The title signifies people hooked and hurt each other, only to reconcile and embrace in the end. Sitaru again discloses dark side of human being, hinted in his previous short Waves. Hard to deliver as for an ultra low budget, painstaking truth about life and relationship is well proposed through singular harmony between metaphorical context and straightforward lines. With remarkable performance of Maria Dinulescu as Ana-Violeta being both an angel and a hooker, Sitaru’s feature debut is mesmerizing. (Young-in LEE)