The '60s, Romania. Serafim, a young doctor, is sent to the Hospital in Palilula, a small town lost somewhere on the country map, after the death of the previous pediatrician, Mr. Pantelică.

Security guard Aurel (Andi Vasluianu) and his wife Irene have a moderately happy marriage and a moderately comfortable lifestyle in urban Romania. Irene takes a working trip to Cairo and returns invigorated with the swell of success. She sets out again and never returns. What follows is both predictable and unpredictable. Aurel, and the audience, are suspicious of the official explanation of her death so the foundation is laid for the traditional who-dunnit. Aurel proceeds on an emotional search against all odds.

15 years ago, Luiza decided to make a fresh start in Spain. She left her 3-year-old daughter Cristina in the care of her relatives and took off. When she returns to Romania, the woman learns some shocking truths that were kept hidden from her: Cristina ran away from home, is a drug addict and has a 2-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage. Overwhelmed by guilt, Luiza attempts to save her daughter

In a small village in the Danube Delta, where traditions are confronted with new material purposes, a teenage girl is becoming a woman. This is the story of Ryna, a 16 year old girl, working as an motor mechanic in Sulina, who strives to find her identity next to a father who is firmly denying her femininity.

Being forced into prostitution by her father, she finds solace in her friends and her journal.

In this very black comedy about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage, Niki is a former colonel in the Romanian army whose daughter is married to the son of Flo, an aging Bohemian who is full of schemes for the “new” Romania. As the young couple prepares to emigrate to the U.S., Niki is obliged to interact with Flo, whom he finds totally unbearable.

An ex-con suffering from terminal cancer and a suicidal ex-legionnaire are hired to participate in a staged assassination attempt on a Romanian politician. As part of the plan, the two must themselves be murdered in order to make their target appear more powerful. But while their circumstances make them perfect fall guys, their lives are initially spared when the attack descends into chaos. Staying alive thereafter involves the two strangers working together to dodge both fellow conspirators and the police.

"Occident" is a bitter comedy about the people who want to emigrate from Romania, and about those who stay behind. The movie has a rich, interesting structure: there are three different stories - a weeklong in the film - that cross, interconnect and happen in the same period. The characters influence each others lives, sometimes even without knowing. Main characters from one story become secondary characters in another story. At the same time, scenes from the first part of the movie bring unexpected facts when seen the second or the third time. The stories do not have just one ending: the first story ends in each of the third parts in a different point, suggesting radically different solutions for the characters. The way in which the director fits time and links events together often produces thematically unexpected results.

The autopsy of a deceased girl finds that the victim had died long before the accident. Taking over the case, "Grandpa" and his assistant, Panaitescu, discover that the perpetrator of the false accident is being blackmailed.