Hotel Dallas has an innovative, fast-paced style that moves between fact and fantasy, as well as found footage, poetry, and music. The actors slip in and out of character, from dramatic dialogue to documentary interviews. The re-enactment, a common strategy in documentaries, here gets an unusual twist, as children in communist youth uniforms perform scenes from Romanian history and the tv series Dallas (1978-1991). Hotel Dallas takes a nostalgic but critical look at the impact of Dallas in Romania. Dallas star Larry Hagman claimed that the show ‘won the Cold War,’ by planting the seeds of capitalism behind the Iron Curtain. He failed to mention the corruption and cronyism that have plagued Romania since communism. Among the generation of oligarchs who rose to power in the 90s was Ilie Alexandru, who built the Hotel Dallas. His role model was none other than J.R. Ewing, the ruthless oil baron played by Larry Hagman.
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