01 Nov 2010 / 09:41
“The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu”, a recently released documentary on the late Romanian dictator, is unlikely to change perceptions about the country's communist period, critics say.
Marian Chiriac
“For some people the movie is just archive material, for others it is a way of remembering or even gloryifing Ceausescu and his legacy. But, in fact, it is only a documentary which speaks today about the recent past,” film critic Iulia Blaga told Balkan Insight.
Culled from a thousand hours of archival footage and four years in the making, Andrei Ujica's film, which includes unseen images of the late leader, was screened for the first time in Romania on October 28 at Sala Palatului, former meeting place of the Communist Party.
“The film fails to present the real face of the communist regime- its systematic repression and its pervasive state policies,” says a man in his 50s who did not want to be named. “It’s a necessary documentary, it’s a page of our history – one which we have to be ashamed of – but nothing more”.
Romanians remain ambivalent about their recent past. A recent survey by the Romanian polling organisation CSOP shows that nearly half of the population believe their life was better during the Communist era, with a higher standard of living and job security being given as the main arguments.
Less than a quarter of Romanians believe their life has improved in the two decades since the overthrow of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Poll respondents often cite lack of freedom and lack of food as the most negative aspects of the communist era.
The movie shows only official images from Ceausescu’s life, starting with his emergence as a communist leader in 1965 until his death in December 1989.
It displays the lives of the dictator and his wife through the propagandistic images of communism: harvest rituals, loyalty demonstrations, long speeches and meetings with different leaders from across the globe, including US President Richard Nixon and Britain's Queen Elizabeth, as well as China’s Mao Zedong and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung.
For the younger audience, meanwhile, the movie was in turns shocking and funny. “I can’t imagine how it was possible for people to accept to be part of such events, such as faked demonstrations and spectacular shows arranged only for Ceausescu and his wife,” says Corina, a student in Bucharest.
Ceausescu fell from power in 1989 after leading Romania's extremely repressive Communist regime for almost 30 years. On December 22, 1989, Ceausescu and his wife fled their palace in downtown Bucharest in an attempt to escape large crowds of angry demonstrators. Three days later they were executed after being sentenced to death by a military trial, a decision that is still controversial.
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