In the 2006 film, director Corneliu Porumbau chose to ask whether It was or it wasn’t. A few years ago, a journalist of the caliber of Nestor Rates took a somewhat similar position, classifying what happened in December 1989 as A confused revolution. On the other hand, the Frenchman Michel Castex was extremely categorical, calling his book dedicated to the Romanian Revolution. A lie the size of a century. The Council of Orange saw in the Romanian revolution mainly the fall of Ceausescu. The prosecutor’s office opened, closed, reopened cases of the Revolution. Ion Iliescu, Petre Romana or Gela Voican-Voiculescu, who many believed would have the answer to the key question, were accused and acquitted who shot at us after 10 p.m.

There were researchers interested in finding out what really happened in what was then called heroic studio 4 from TVR. How he appeared there and how he was accepted as a ruler en titre Ion Iliescu. He, who until then was only a former apparatchik, sent, as he himself said, at work, resigned from high party positions to the position of director of the Technical Publishing House. Some wondered whether it was true that the new government led by him once turned to Moscow for help. USA. More or less reliable historians, documentaries (I am referring primarily to Cornel Michalache), as well as all kinds of witnesses, that is, people whose definition includes subjectivity as the main distinguishing feature, they also spoke about an opinion, very often clearly interested. Bringing the fact as the final argument of the truth of what was said that they were there. Some did it with the aim of discrediting either the army, the police, or the SBU. The meaning of the word terrorist was turned on its head, but I don’t know how it happened, because even to this day we have not found out if there were terrorists, and if so, who they were, if they were Romanians from the special forces , specially prepared to rescue Ceausescu, if they were Russians or Arabs, where they came from and where they mysteriously disappeared.

Probably the only information means even today, so many years after the revolution (Ruksandra Cezerianu explored in a book that is really worth reading how many names those events had) dead, wounded, mutilated. Extremely much. Surprisingly more after the escape of Nicolae Ceausescu than before. But how to explain so many victims? Only in this way could the word be rediscovered freedom? Which means a lot more than always having free access to oranges or a passport, as has been understood for a long time and also after December 1989.

Freedom, the 2023 film directed by Tudor Giurgiu, begins with this unique confidence. Lack of certainty as to the cause of deaths, injuries, terrorists and those arrested/captured during the Revolution. Victims of the reign of chaos. How it materialized not in Bucharest, not in Timisoara, but in Sibiu in December 1989 and January 1990. We are talking about more than 90 dead, many wounded, captured. About disputes and mutual accusations between the army, police and security. Consolidated (and) in illegal detentions. Almost 500 people were arrested, mostly police and security personnel, as well as people who had nothing to do with law enforcement, but who were detained only because they were allegedly terrorists, because they were moving in groups. People are terrorized, malnourished, deprived of even minimal hygiene. Lack of elementary rights. All without evidence and courts. The army appeared with us, after being against us for several days, she thought herself justified in this. Because it was, was, is from the people. Everything is simple until February 1, 1990. That is, more than a month in a country that wanted to become European again.

So, the director was not interested in creating a new film about the Revolution, he simply had no ambition to solve its mysteries, but intended to return a specific case to the present. Huge abuse. To call out and unfold on all faces the springs, senselessness and inhumanity of this chaos, the existence of which he found out, by his own admission, by accident.

The chaos in Sibiu perfectly overlapped and fed abundantly on the chaos in Bucharest, what was broadcast by TVR, the rumours, the story of the poisoned water, the contradictory statements of some representatives of the authorities, who were also fickle, i.e. today they were on duty after 24 hours no one knows about them. From misinformation, from uncontrolled news, some deliberately distorted, which pours on the population. All this leads to increased panic. As part of Taming the Chaos.

The division between the people in uniform, although it existed before (one of them was the social and economic status of those dressed in green, completely different from that of the policemen and clearly higher than that of the guards), intensified by hours, days, in the upheavals of the Revolution. Some wolves instantly dressed in sheep’s clothing, executioners quickly turned into victims, some created new identities, shamelessly calling themselves grandchildren of Doina Cornea. Such words or phrases as freedom or the rights of man appeared on the lips of many of those who until then were an undeniable and faithful part of what was called the armed wing of the party. Until recently, words were either de-semanticized or indexed, and were only spoken aloud Radio Free Europe. It’s just that one thing meant freedom for Colonel Dragoman, the commander of the military unit in Sibiu, another for the reborn guards who sought to forget their terrible past (as in the case of the one named Sokacha in the film), who hurried to become comrades, gentlemen, something else for the one named Tobosaru in the film, who introduced himself as the new military commandant of the hospital (appointed by whom?), another for the guards who faced a new status, the status of arrested, humiliated beings like Silvas or Petrache, but none the less, it’s true , that only a few weeks or months later they returned silently and baptized as Serezists to the positions, privileges and everything else, for policemen like Viorel. The central character of the film. The meaning and value of freedom was understood in a completely different way by simple mature people, such as Leahu, and not those who had just emerged from adolescence, such as Shoita or Lucian. For some, freedom was imagined in the long term, for others it was confused with liberation from the pool in which they were held by force, for others the category of freedom meant confronting the unknown. Ignoring the administration, Colonel Petrache predicted otherwise. Ignorance that will be used long after December 1989.

This vague accumulation of fluctuations and changes of position, often paid for by fear, misery, humiliation, was destroyed during mass metamorphoses and after people wildly shot each other. Not knowing why they do it. They only knew they were being attacked, they knew they had to defend themselves. They did not know who and why. He was still somebody. The one who pulls is multiplied. People, the vast majority of them in uniform, did not understand at all why and who was attacking them, it was difficult for them to understand that the death came from someone with whom they shared the same barricades until December 21. Or, since that vague thing still had a name, Sorescu said, he resorted to the term terrorism. Terrorism in the days of the revolution took various forms.

It is these forms that are captured by Tudor Giurgiu, in his dual role of director and screenwriter (the script was written in collaboration with Cecilia Stefanescu), cinematographer Alexandru Sterian and members of the solid cast, who have the fundamental advantage of perfectly interacting and giving authenticity to the chaos mentioned above. I mean a person. A person is scanned in all its colors and shades. In its good and bad. From the mixture of authoritarianism and frustration of the warlord Dragoman (another very good role on the creative sheet of Julian Postelniku), to the converted villainy of Mr. Sokachu’s comrade (Andi Vasluianu), from the uprisings of Silivash (Ionuc Karas). ), to the paternalism of Leach (Catelyn Erlo) in relation to Shoaita (Stefan Janku), from the various forms of dementia of power, as they manifest in the behavior of the characters played by Emilian Oprea and Bohdan Farkas, to the sisterly Fear of death instilled in the being of the cynical great bodyguard Petrace , brilliantly played by Alexandru Papadopol, or the way Colonel Popa behaves, brilliantly played by Niko Michoch, or Mantale, brilliantly played by Dan Bordeianu. In eternal fear of Major Marinescu, whose percussion is performed by Rezvan Vicoveanu. Not to mention the great revelation presented by the first-class performance of Alexandru Kalangiu.

Tudor Giurgiu likes to take risks. He also knows when and how to do it. He also takes risks when it comes to plot choices, he also takes risks with actors. And, as many years ago with Emilian Oprea, inspired the main role in Why me?, is now taking a chance with Alex Calangiu. This gives him a role that does not allow partial results. Which eliminates the middle path. Of course, there were guarantees of exceptional roles performed by the young actor on the stage of the National Theater. Marin Sorescu from Kraiova. However, the guarantees had to be checked again. Both the actor and the director manage to reassess perfectly. Alexander Kalangiu, in his first big meeting with the film, has a difficult role. Physically difficult, difficult because of the sequence of situations and mental states, emotional because of the physical and moral suffering that Viorel undergoes, heartbreaking because of how the actor plays a very well-chosen ending without words.

IN Freedom the weight of the earth, as they say, rests on man’s shoulders. They make up the majority of the cast. However, this does not mean that Mirela Oprishor, Elvira Rimba, Marina Palii, Cendana Trifan or Andrea Gramoshteanu will remain unnoticed. The fact that every role, every appearance, every passage through the frame is visible is a credit to the actors and actresses in the cast, the cameraman, and the director. You also remember the moment when some woman seriously announced her emotional escape Comradeand the self-blame of a woman recommended as MAI (Mirela Oprishor), and the devotion of a wife who went in search of a husband, and the cunning of Stupar (Aleks Bohdan), and the fear-distorted face of Moga, played with inspiration and concentration by Christy Popa, and the moment when the beardless Shoaita, played by Štefan Janku, fires a gun and screams at the top of his voice Freedom, and Lucian’s eternally amazed gaze, well-delineated by Vojku Dumitras. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro