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As they sit down to a sumptuous meal, enough for a dozen and prepared by the expert hands of his blind cook Ilena (Sevilla Delofski), Daniel reveals details between mouthfuls. As Ana glides around the dining room, silently serving, he reveals how they met when he was but a young man. At a summer wedding, Daniel found himself in close proximity to Ana and attracted to her obvious charms. Audaciously he started to gently stroke her ankle, before gliding his hand upwards. Throughout this stimulation Ana barely acknowledged his presence before bounding away, leaving Daniel to his thoughts. Entranced by Ana he started trying to meet with her, being rejected at every attempt. She was far more in love with her fiance Roberto (Karl Tessler).
The problem was that such provocation only strengthened Daniel's obsession, driving him into the performance of acts no sane person would consider. Throughout this monologue further exotic courses are presented, a stark contrast to the desperate, starving mob roaming the city streets. Gunshots and explosive flashes lend form to the war taking place beyond this oasis, a calm which is shattered by the sudden arrival of wounded soldiers. Daniel is a well-known doctor and his services are urgently required, leaving the guests free to speculate among themselves. His treatment of Ana seems most extraordinary, beyond the compass of normal human affairs and perhaps simply a cunning tale woven by Daniel. However, each guest has a personal secret which ends up being unmasked and combined with Daniel's narrative. These men were surely friends once but can the same thing be honestly said for the present?
The potential available to Two Deaths can be clearly discerned, centering as it does on the axis of Daniel-Ana. He may, or may not, have conquered her yet she has tremendous power over him, activated through denial of her soul. The interlinking of the guests through Daniel provides a further axis, tangential to the major storyline but quite important. To ensure success for this entire edifice, the emotions straining inside each character need to be convincingly displayed, hidden but central to their lives. This is especially critical for Daniel, a man shredded by overwhelming desire, thwarted at every turn and desperate for recognition. Unfortunately all behave as if they were at a performance class, demonstrating their grasp of textbook emotion. The fire, tragedy and despair inherent in the tale never gels, crushed beneath a group of people who look and sound like actors. The violent backdrop of Bucharest promises a wealth of possibilities, yet it ends up as a distraction, something which interrupts proceedings for no good reason. Some people die, others live - there's no motivation to care which happens to whom. The brightest moment is provided courtesy of a virtuoso special-effects shot, an illustration of how dull the remainder of Two Deaths remains.
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