The fact that the characters live in poverty is reflected in a scene where Mr. Bebe accosts his mother for wanting to buy sugar. When Otilia is searching for Mr. Bebe, there is also a line of people visible in the background queuing for food, reflecting the lack of food security in the 1980s. Additionally, the characters are often impolite towards each other. Mungiu explained that this was related to the poverty, saying "You need people in a society to have reached a certain standard of living before they can be polite". The bartering scenes reflect how corporate goods common west of the Iron Curtain were prohibited in Romania and were viewed as luxuries.