Bucharest, Romania is a city in which small buildings and shady courtyards are crowded and dwarfed by gray, concrete high-rise complexes built during Nikolae Ceausescu's reign. THE DISCREET CHARM OF BUCHAREST is a film about the people and buildings of this great city.

What is like to live there today? What significance do buildings and architecture have in a person's life? With the help of six residents of this great city, including 99-year-old architect Iulan Namescu, we approach these questions.

Filled with contradictions, this is a city that is difficult to grasp. There is something touching and fascinating, a feeling (or perhaps a rhythm) that is on the point of disappearing - or already has. Is it nothing more than traces of the past, strata that have not yet been scrubbed away, torn down and buried?

THE DISCREET CHARM OF BUCHAREST searches gently for these subtle traces, locating them at the intersection of heart and home.