D: Sherng-Lee Huang, Livia Ungur | USA/Romania | 75 min | Romanian and English with English Subtitles | ARKANSAS PREMIERE
Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang’s Berlinale-premiering Hotel Dallas tells the true story of how the soapy series Dallas – the only American program allowed to be aired in Ceaușescu’s Romania because it served as a cautionary tale on the evil capitalist West (yes, really) – became must-watch TV that influenced an entire generation. It also tells the fuzzier tale of how Livia, who fell in love with Patrick “Bobby Ewing” Duffy as a youngster, and her father Ilie, who fancies himself a wheeler-dealer much like J.R., pursued their Dallas dreams after the fall of the regime. While Ilie built Hotel Dallas (a Southfork replica and a means to embezzle millions in taxes), Livia left for America, eventually deciding to return to her homeland to take her adolescent obsession Duffy on a wild ride through the new – 80s-inspired – Romania. -- LW
