Gabriel Spahiu

A 60-ish widower, living alone with his cats, feels sick enough one evening to call an ambulance. This is the beginning of his Dantesque odyssey deep into the bowels of a big city medical establishment.

Romania, 1999. As the Kosovo conflict rages, a no-nonsense U.S. military officer leads a platoon of Marines and a shipment of top-secret communications equipment toward a NATO outpost. But when a corrupt stationmaster halts their train, the soldiers find themselves the unexpected guests of an impoverished village filled with stubborn bureaucracy, beguiling young women, and odd pop culture celebrations.