{"id":3068,"date":"2021-10-15T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T09:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/herito.pl\/?post_type=artykul&p=3068"},"modified":"2023-07-17T14:34:14","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T12:34:14","slug":"the-rulers-and-the-exiles-the-past-and-memory-in-romanian-cinema-since-1989","status":"publish","type":"artykul","link":"https:\/\/herito.pl\/en\/artykul\/the-rulers-and-the-exiles-the-past-and-memory-in-romanian-cinema-since-1989\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rulers and the Exiles: The Past and Memory in Romanian Cinema Since 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In new Romanian cinema there is no room for lifting heroic faces, patriotic cataracts or excuses. There is no pathos and the kind of symbolism which was abundant in communist productions. What is to be found instead is mirror or the reflections of a distorted mirror.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGood father, father-tyrant, father-coward. Dear father. Sleep in peace\u201d \u2013 says the main character of Balan\u0163a<\/em> (The Oak<\/em>), Lucian Pintilie\u2019s film about the decline of Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s dictatorship. In a moment, due to the stupidity and servility of the dictator\u2019s henchmen, children\u2019s blood will be spilt on the screen. It is no accident that the scene brings to mind the events of December 1989, when people died pointlessly, as victims of chaos.<\/p>\n

Balan\u0163a<\/em> is the first cinematic reckoning with the Romanian past, a hoarse scream after a long silence, a derisive and relentless voice. It will still be over a dozen years before Pintilie\u2019s disciples, young Romanian directors, create daring films deconstructing communism and tackling the myth of the dear Father-Tyrant. While at it, they will reap laurels at the most important foreign film festivals, and the world will learn that Romanian cinema has been reborn.<\/p>\n

Christ and the Creator of the New Wave<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\u201cWithout Lucian Pintilie there would be no Romanian New Wave\u201d \u2013 said renowned director Cristi Puiu. His 2001 debut Marf\u0103 <\/em>\u0219<\/em>i bani<\/em> is a founding film of new Romanian cinema which mapped out the style for subsequent productions. Alex Leo \u0218erban, the late critic of the young generation, humorously proposed a caesura for his local cinematography: \u201cBefore and after Cristi.\u201d If we were to follow this metaphor and call Puiu \u201cChrist of the New Wave,\u201d then Lucian Pintilie would have to be called the Creator.<\/p>\n

Pintilie is a great mythical figure in Romanian cinema, the only such distinct example of courage and intransigence in the times of deaf-and-dumb directors. In his Reconstituirea<\/em> (Reconstruction<\/em>) he openly showed the cruelty of the system, the thoughtlessness of propaganda and the demoralisation of power. His next play, which he staged in the theatre, the sardonic and subversive The Government Inspector<\/em>, infuriated the censors even more. The director had no other choice but to leave the country in 1975.<\/p>\n

Having returned from exile, Pintilie discovered the talent of Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu, organised workshops and taught the young to write scripts. In the early 1990s he emphasised: \u201cPoverty can be turned into an asset.\u201d Today, the signature quality of the new generation of directors is the ability to turn budgetary restrictions into the two biggest assets of Romanian cinema: minimalism and piercing realism.<\/p>\n

The Ruler and the Exile<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Asked whether he regretted the years of his directorial absence, Pintilie answered bitterly: \u201cHow many films have been made by the man who denounced me to the authorities? Not counting the \u2018film\u2019 of Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s execution, in which he himself took part, as many as 38. I\u2019ll repeat the question: how many films have been made by the man who denounced Pintilie? Thirty-eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That director was Sergiu Nicolaescu, the baron of Romanian cinema, who was responsible for over 60 films, mainly action and crime films. His historical epics, such as Dacii <\/em>(The Dacians<\/em>, 1966), were watched by millions of Romanians. Nicolaescu had no qualms about turning historians\u2019 propaganda gibberish into films. In one of them, Mircea the Elder, the Romanian national hero, speaks to soldiers gathered in front of him using the language of a communist dictator. Nicolaescu\u2019s productions, full of pompous crowd scenes, interpreted history as they wished, without regard for facts or common sense, leading some to snidely call him \u201cSergiu Ceau\u0219escu\u201d.<\/p>\n

The director\u2019s visions captured the imagination of the masses, and together with hosts of \u201crewriters of history\u201d, fixed a warped version of the past in the consciousness of Romanians. When the regime began to falter, Nicolaescu knew which way the wind was blowing and, next to Ion Iliescu, became a leader of the supposed revolution. In one of his books he reminisces how, while on stage, he could hear the cry from 400,000 throats: \u201cSergiu, Sergiu!\u201d Nicolaescu silenced the crowd and passed the microphone on to Iliescu, stressing that he was giving it to the right person. This was one of the key moments determining Romania\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Nicolaescu\u2019s greatest adversary turned out to be Cristi Puiu, who, after the director\u2019s death, called him \u201cthe regime\u2019s beneficiary\u201d, \u201ca plot owner\u201d and a \u201ctyrant.\u201d Puiu remembered that Nicolaescu put spokes in young directors\u2019 wheels whenever he could. \u201cAnd yet he could have made so much possible, since it was he, as a politician and senator, who made decisions. To make a film, we had to jump through hoops put in front of us by Nicolaescu\u2019s men.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is true that critics name Lucian Pintilie as the greatest director in the history of Romanian cinema, ordinary Romanians grant this title to Sergiu Nicolaescu. The director who denounced another artist, accusing him of a \u201clack of patriotism\u201d, is considered the emblem of patriotism; the dedicated champion of Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s nationalist ideology is regarded as a man without whom overthrowing the dictator would have been impossible. Romanian history doesn\u2019t just giggle, but rolls in the aisles.<\/p>\n

Revolution Live<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The December events in Romania were the first takeover of power transmitted live on television. Throughout the country, people sat riveted to their TV sets, watching consecutive figures giving speeches on the screen. In Harun Farocki\u2019s documentary, Videogramme einer Revolution<\/em> (1992) the viewer is struck by the impression of chaos, makeshift and incompetence. Feverish people with burning eyes, lose the plot, barrack each other, then go silent. It seems that a ruthless political rough and tumble has already begun in the crowd.<\/p>\n

In 2006, 17 years after the revolution, three films depicting the era are released almost simultaneously: C\u0103t\u0103lin Mitulescu\u2019s Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii<\/em> (The Way I Spent the End of the World<\/em>), Corneliu Porumboiu\u2019s A fost sau n-a fost? <\/em>(12:08 East of Bucharest<\/em>) and Radu Munteanu\u2019s H\u00e2rtia va fi albastr\u0103<\/em> (The Paper Will Be Blue<\/em>). In all of them the TV chaos is shown from the perspective of the average viewer. In Mitulescu\u2019s nostalgic debut, the news of the revolution finds the main characters busy at simple craft work. Astounded, they stare at the agitated crowd that refuses to let Ceau\u0219escu speak. In the following scenes everyone comes out onto the streets, watches a hectic moving out of a Securitate agent, burns a car and waves national flags. \u201cDown with Ceau\u0219escu!\u201d \u2013 they shout.<\/p>\n

Mitulescu\u2019s film shows how ordinary Romanian families dealt with the regime \u2013 how a slice of cheese was cut into three parts, how soup made of leaves was eaten in silence, how a father \u2013 good-hearted in times of fun, and harsh when the peace at home was threatened \u2013 controlled everything with an iron fist, while the mother mediated between him and the children. Some tried to resist the regime and maintain an illusion of freedom, manifesting their opposition, while others made compromises to better their lot at least a little, e.g. to get hold of a medicine for an ill child.<\/p>\n

The Victims of Chaos<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In Munteanu\u2019s The Paper Will Be Blue<\/em> the story takes place during the night of 22\u201323 December, when Ceau\u0219escu escaped from the capital, although there was still no confirmed information about what happened next. The events are presented from the point of view of a group of militiamen who patrol the streets, hidden in a tank. They still don\u2019t know whether they should stay on duty as forces subordinate to the dictator, or whether to fraternise with the people. Their disorientation and uncertainty increase as the orders they receive are incoherent and communication with their headquarters is continually broken off.<\/p>\n

Chaos engulfs the characters in all its relentlessness. The idealistic militiaman who wants to join the protesters on television is beaten up by two officers who regard him as a terrorist. In the general confusion it is unclear who can and who cannot be trusted. Chaos blurs the boundaries between good and evil, mocks pathos, cancels out loftiness. The ending of the film, the sequence which repeats the beginning, depicts the young militiamen right before they are executed by soldiers, just because they were unable to give the correct password, which kept changing. Their death is poignant, absurd, and senseless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no revolution\u201d \u2013 said Radu Munteanu in an interview. \u201cThe message of the film is this: stay where you are. All this was not worth sacrificing anyone\u2019s life for. Innocent victims died so that others could create the impression that a revolution was taking place. Criminals. The death of children was to legitimise their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of Love for the Truth of which There is Never Too Much<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In his debut, 12:08 East of Bucharest<\/em>, Corneliu Porumboiu equally mercilessly deals with the myths of the revolution and Romanian heroism. However, his way of showing the absurdity is through the grotesque, not through horror. The original title, A fost sau n-a fost?<\/em> (Did it happen or not?<\/em>) refers to the question that Romanians continue to ask to this day: could the December events be called a revolution at all?<\/p>\n

Porumboiu\u2019s film is a contrary reiteration of the myth of the \u201clive revolution\u201d. The director places his characters in a local TV studio in the provincial town of Vaslui. The viewer observes yet another example of TV manipulation and lies, this time in \u201cindependent Romania\u201d. An attempted reconstruction of the events discredits all the participants of the programme. As it transpires, Manescu, the alcoholic teacher who claims to have been manifesting against Ceau\u0219escu on the city square, for which he was beaten up by Securitate agents, was actually drinking with his companions in a nearby restaurant. According to consecutive witnesses no one was present on the square. This is confirmed by the guard who was sitting in a sentry box, but even his testimony is uncertain as he left his post at 11:30 am to buy a Christmas tree. \u201cThere was no revolution! We were better off with Ceau\u0219escu!\u201d \u2013 a viewer making a phone call to the studio cries live. An alleged collaborator of the Securitate, mentioned by Manescu, also telephones the programme, introduces himself as an influential businessman, and makes it clear that any further incriminations will cost the TV station a slander trial. The only person to defend the humiliated Manescu is a Chinese man who says over the phone: \u201cI don\u2019t like the way you Romanians treat one another.\u201d The host dismisses him scornfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here are cowards\u201d \u2013 explains another guest, Piscoci, an elderly man who, instead of reconstructing the past events, prefers to reminisce about his late wife. Piscoci is more reconciled with great history than with the memory of his own past. \u201cEveryone stages the kind of revolution they can afford\u201d \u2013 he says. \u201cEach in his own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the programme, there is a telephone call from a mother of a student who died in the riots; but all she has to say to the guests in the studio is to wish them merry Christmas. \u201cThe first snow has fallen and we should enjoy it because tomorrow it will turn into slush\u201d \u2013 says the woman and hangs up. The three men in the studio lower their heads.<\/p>\n

What became the myth constituting Romanian national identity after 1989 was of no importance to ordinary Romanians, discouraged and engulfed in apathy. The citizens, preoccupied with pre-Christmas errands, often cut off from any information on new developments, accepted the turn of events with reserved enthusiasm. In Porumboiu\u2019s film individual memory clashes with collective memory, but brings no satisfaction. Creation of a lofty myth without any premises must end in failure.<\/p>\n

Since there are no heroes, there are no enemies either \u2013 the only guilty man died on a wall, shot after an improvised trial, sentenced by a legally invalid court ruling. The revolution is perceived as trauma and consequently is repressed from memory, as the process meant to reconstruct it is embarrassing, painful and completely unsatisfactory.<\/p>\n

Our Daily Terror<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu is the great absent persona in young Romanian cinema \u2013 even if he is not directly mentioned, his ghost hovers above the characters. This is the case, for example, in Corneliu Porumboiu\u2019s medium-length film Visul lui Liviu<\/em> (Liviu\u2019s Dream<\/em>, 2004), which opens with an archive tape showing Ceau\u0219escu announcing the introduction of Decree 770, prohibiting contraception and abortion. This is the burden that Romanian society had to bear for over 20 years; a burden which destroyed families and family relationships, a burden of fear, guilt and distrust.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was going well\u201d \u2013 narrates Liviu, the film\u2019s main character. \u201cMother was working in a clothes factory. As she was watching the thread she thought about the sheep that the communists had stolen from her father. Once in a while she took her revenge by destroying the sewing machines. Father dreamed of becoming a locomotive driver, but there were few locomotives and a lot of bribes. He barely managed to find a job as a lorry driver. Soon, he started driving to building sites, stealing anything he could put his hands on, from cement to nails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liviu is the son of two frustrated people, from whom communism took away dreams, while capitalism took away their hope. As a young man he accepts shady commissions and tries to avoid entering adulthood at all cost. When his girlfriend gets pregnant, he tries to force her to have an abortion, just as his father forced his mother to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

The problem of the abortion underground hell is addressed by Cristian Mungiu in the most well-known Romanian film since 1989, 4 luni, 3 s\u0103pt\u0103m\u00e2ni <\/em>\u0219<\/em>i 2 zile<\/em> (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days<\/em>), awarded a Palme d\u2019Or at the 2007 Cannes Festival. Mungiu focuses on details, depicting the banality of everyday evil. Here, there is no trace of nostalgia, which permeates The Way I Spent the End of the World<\/em>, although, like Mitulescu, Mungiu shows the power of human relationships and their solidarity which allows them to outsmart the system.<\/p>\n

The main character, Otilia, decides to help her friend get an abortion. Ahead of her lies a prolonged ordeal among people who refuse to do anything without a bribe. This is the reality of contraband deodorant, packs of Kent cigarettes put on the counter without a word, destitution, blackmail, rape and humiliation. All relations degenerate. This is a world into which children should not be born.<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, Mungiu is also the writer of a series of highly humorous film novellas Amintiri din epoca de aur<\/em> (Tales from the Golden Age<\/em>, 2009), which show the other face of Romanian communism reflected in a distorted mirror. Using urban legends, Mungiu sketches an image of a society made up of people who are cunning, but kind-hearted, forming a conspiratorial self-help network. This is perfectly illustrated by a short film about a family from a tower block estate in Bucharest, who are blessed with the acquisition of a live pig for Christmas. The youngest member of the family comes up with the idea that the pig should be gassed, which leads to a great explosion.<\/p>\n

In both productions Mungiu shows a clear division into the private and the public. The regime held Romanians in an iron grip, and yet, even then, rebellion, resistance and creative scheming were possible, if limited to, for instance, an exploding pig.<\/p>\n

The Death of the Father of the Nation<\/strong><\/h1>\n

In new Romanian cinema there is no room for lifting heroic faces, patriotic cataracts or excuses. There is no pathos and the kind of symbolism which was abundant in communist productions. What is to be found instead is mirror or the reflections of a distorted mirror. The directors depict the absurdity of communism by employing the grotesque, but at the same time they capture the horror of the past by presenting it through hyperrealism.<\/p>\n

In this need for scrutinising memory, however, they seem alone in Romanian society. Despite their successes abroad, most of their films have had scant viewership. Just as Pintilie was an exile from the communist reality in the 1970s, the young directors today have been exiled from the awareness of ordinary citizens. Twenty-four years have passed since the December events, but the eyes of Romanians are still fixed on the most brutal scene of Romanian cinema: the record of the execution of the Father of the Nation, Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu. Perhaps this is why Romanians are so reluctant to take stock of their collective memory and to watch films which could remind them of their repressed past.<\/p>\n

Translated from the Polish by Ewa Kowal<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":3245,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[344,329,337],"region":[],"kraj":[639],"magazyn":[227,227],"class_list":["post-3068","artykul","type-artykul","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cinema","tag-culture","tag-history","kraj-romania","magazyn-herito-12en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Rulers and the Exiles: The Past and Memory in Romanian Cinema Since 1989 - herito<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In new Romanian cinema there is no room for lifting heroic faces, patriotic cataracts or excuses. There is no pathos and the kind of symbolism which was abundant in communist productions. 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