Filmmakers resurrect Romanian dictator Ceausescu

At the Message to Man festival, which ended in St. Petersburg, it was possible to collect paintings from all over the world, although not without losses. In conditions of isolation, it also happens that films whose participation has already been confirmed leave the race.

Many foreign directors refuse to give their films right away. Someone recalls them later, having learned that participation in the Russian festival may block the further international fate of the film. He will not be taken to the programs of other film screenings. Because of this, even filmmakers from India and China did not accept invitations to come to Russia.

Nevertheless, the competition was put together and very interesting. The Grand Prix “Golden Centaur” for the best film went to the film “Where are we going” by the Belarusian documentary filmmaker Ruslan Fedotov, which showed the annual cycle of the Moscow metro. Initially, he wanted to shoot the metro in Minsk, but moved to Moscow, where for several years he worked on his hour-long film. The metro on the screen appears as an alternative reality of the townspeople. We observe all this every day, but Ruslan is extremely concentrated. The metro becomes a metaphor for the modern world and a single city. It seems that this is a fairy tale, although we do not see anything fabulous. These are ordinary people who get to know each other and dance in the subway, express their position, for which they can immediately be taken out. Underground, they participate in the Immortal Regiment action and almost pray for the sculptures installed there.

The international section featured a 39-minute film “Character” by Paul Heinz from France, filmed in English. Her heroes were several residents of the UK, who were united by the novel “1984” by George Orwell. His character’s name is Winston Smith, and everyone who starred in “Character” is also a Winston Smith. One of them is an elderly native Englishman, a pensioner, the rest are younger, dark-skinned, of different social levels. Some of them like to speak in the London Speakers’ Corner, some prefer a quiet and peaceful life. The director somehow found and gathered these people. How he did it is not mentioned in the film. The Smiths talk about global topics, talking about what they would do on their last day on earth. The youngest of them would spend time with the maximum number of women, would know the joy of love. This answer does not suit the rest, because we are not talking about a man as a male, but about a person with certain ideals. An original picture, magnificent characters, impressed by the unexpected commonality of the name.

The special prize of the jury of the international competition was given to a 45-minute French-made film “Nicolae”, filmed in Romanian. Its director Mihai Grecu was educated in Romania and France and explores the subconscious processes of a person in his films. In Nikolay, he tried to understand why people have such a strong need for a strong hand, which makes them live with memories of the past, why it seems ideal, although it was not. Just as we always return to the image of Stalin, waiting for his second coming, so in Nikolai they endlessly recall how good life was under Ceausescu. By the will of the director, the desired is accomplished.

An elderly Romanian villager is put on a VR helmet and sees dictator Nicolae Ceausescu as if he were alive. In 1989, by decision of the tribunal, he was shot, and in 2021 he unexpectedly resurrected. He appears thanks to the latest VR technologies, in the form of a hologram – flowing, unearthly, like a messiah. The people are amazed, they notice that their pet has lost a lot of weight, become slim and beautiful. Ceausescu addresses the inhabitants of the village where he once visited, and where people who were seized by madness ran after him, shouting his name. A resident of the village recalls his arrival and now she herself cannot understand what happened to her then, why it was necessary to do all this. It was like an eclipse. Another villager tells the young about how they lived in those days. She has kept a red flag, similar to the Soviet one, which she keeps as a shrine. The woman recalls the times of the USSR, speaks of communist morality and the proletarian slogans of universal brotherhood. The kids are bored. Some people have a hard time getting over sleep. For them, this is some kind of panopticon.

In the new reality, Ceausescu from the hologram promises people everything they dream of. It was not for nothing that they gathered and remembered how good it was for them in his time, how they lived with dignity. And now what they wanted has happened, and how to deal with it. At the end, the grandmother, on the gate of which the figure of Ceausescu is projected, will ask him to remove it so that he can fall asleep. The story is over. The international jury noted this picture for warning against the tragic mistakes of the past.

The observation film “Water of Pastasa” directed by Ines T. Alves from Portugal reminds of a grand celebration of disobedience. Children manage themselves, and adults seem to not exist. Barefoot girls and boys get food, split coconuts, from which they drink juice, fish on the banks of the Pastasa. Ines studied cultural history in Lisbon and Bergamo, then documentary filmmaking in London. She conducts film seminars for different social groups, which led her to the border of Peru and Ecuador, where Amazonian Indian communities live in the jungle. There she observed the primitive life of children, who at the same time have mobile phones and even a weak Internet, which change little in the way of life of the local population.

Another unusual work is “Pebbles” by Indian director Vinotraj P.S. This is also a debut film, marked with the main award of the Rotterdam Film Festival, the “Golden Apricot” in Yerevan, nominated by India for the “Oscar” award. Vinothraj sold DVDs, got to know the Tamil film industry, became an assistant director in films, an assistant director on theater projects, and then made his own film in Tamil.

This is not at all the Indian cinema where they sing and dance. 13 kilometers separate two Tamil villages. In one lives a boy with his mother and her relatives, in the other – his angry father, from whom you will hear nothing but abuse. He threatens to kill his wife along with her relatives. The father travels with his son from village to village. Along the way, they will meet the poorest family eating rats. Pictures of poverty and hopelessness accompany the viewer throughout the film. The boy gets only slaps in the face, he will not hear a single kind word. The child is ready to endure everything, dutifully follows his father, picks up pebbles along the way. One of them he puts in his cheek. It seems that on occasion he will launch at his father so that he stops mocking him. Together they ride the bus, where the restless dad will start a fight. The boy will be picked up by a compassionate couple on a motorcycle to take him to the village, although his father does not like it at all. Patience, sheer patience – that’s what is required of a small person. His father is poor, with nothing but a loincloth, a worn shirt, and a violent temper. But he is a father, there will be no other. The picture is meager, devoid of color, but how expressive the characters are, one cannot tear oneself away from them.

The Betrothal of Ademoka by Adilkhan Yerzhanov, filmed in a co-production between Kazakhstan and France, has a completely different palette. The young heroine of the film, played by Adema Yerzhanova, is an underage migrant from Tajikistan. She has bright hair, she is like a holiday herself, she is not like the others, she is talented, draws well and wants to learn. But if there is no citizenship and documents, then there is nothing left but to engage in begging in Kazakhstan. At the same time, no dramas and dull everyday life. Spectators are invited to the carnival, where each hero has his own mask. The savior of the girl will be a savior and a philosopher (he was played by a slightly aged Daniyar Alshinov), but for some reason people listen to his opinion, on whom something in this life depends. They are kind of fake too. Policemen are on duty on the roadside, where they have desks. The teachers also settled in the field. A conditional world that we take for granted, without plunging into details. Another fairy tale on a completely non-fairy theme.