Radio România Internațional

Category: World of Culture

  • The Gaudeamus International Book Fair

    The Gaudeamus International Book Fair

    Romanian Centennial was the central theme of the 25th
    edition of the Gaudeamus International Book and Education Fair, hosted between
    November 14th and 18th by the Romexpo Exhibition Centre
    in Bucharest. Around 600 volumes and some 50 events-book launches and
    presentations, debates, film screenings, public lectures-marked the Great Union
    Centennial and the end of World War I, as well as 90 years since the first
    broadcast aired by Radio Romania.


    This year, the Fair brought together over 300 participants:
    established Romanian publishing institutions, education institutions, book and
    periodical distributors, producers of educational games, professional
    associations and NGOs working in the field of culture and education. Our guests
    today, Bogdan Alexandru Stanescu, head of the Biblioteca Polirom world
    literature collection, Andreea Rasuceanu, the initiator and coordinator of the
    Contemporary Romanian Writers series of the Humanitas publishing house, and
    Eli Banica, the initiator and head of the n’autor collection launched by
    Nemira Publishers, spoke about the highlights of this year’s edition.


    George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant was one of the most eagerly
    awaited releases in Biblioteca Polirom collection. Bogdan Alexandru Stanescu
    told us more about this volume and about other novelties in the collection:


    The book brings together essays on the years spent by George
    Orwell as a member of the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, in 1922-1927, and on
    his self-imposed poverty period. These essays are, perhaps to a higher extent
    than his diary, in a position to shed light on the portrait of this British
    writer. Another new title in Biblioteca Polirom is Philip Roth’s Why Write?
    brilliantly translated by Radu Pavel Gheo. It is a non-fiction book, comprising
    interviews, essays, confessions, the last book that Roth lived to see
    published, by the prestigious Library of America. It also includes
    autobiographical pieces published by Roth between 1960 and 2014. Also in this
    year’s edition of Gaudeamus we launched A Lifetime in Letters. Correspondence
    I (1879-1890) by A. P. Chekhov. It is an edition translated and edited by
    Sorina Balanescu, and this first volume of Chekhov’s epistolary autobiography
    comprises letters sent by the author between 1879 and 1890. It was originally
    designed as a 3-volume edition, but details change from one month to the next,
    so a fourth volume is not out of the question.


    Last year, Humanitas Publishers launched a new collection, entitled
    Contemporary Romanian Writers. Andreea Rasuceanu, the coordinator of the
    collection, believes that contemporary Romanian literature is very diverse, and
    this diversity must be properly showcased. She also gave us details about new
    titles launched in this collection at the Gaudeamus fair:


    Humanitas Publishers opened the series of new releases with
    3 new books. The first is Radu Vancu’s Transparency, an erudite, semi-fantasy
    novel, reminding of Mircea Cartarescu’s style, and which incorporates a
    wonderful love story. The plot is set in a mythical version of Sibiu, rewriting
    its map and including it in a list of fictionalised cities. Another book that
    we launched at Gaudeamus is Iulian Popa’s debut work, Guadalajara, a short
    story volume. The author has a fresh voice, one that convinced me as soon as I
    read some of his stories. They have a sense of quaintness, of melancholy,
    whether they talk about a couple’s crisis, about the loneliness and confusion
    of old age, or about the lack of communication in today’s world. It is a prose
    in which I believe, and I hope it will be successful. And not least, we have a
    collective volume, an anthology called 16 prose writers of today, which
    includes works by some of the most important contemporary Romanian prose
    writers.


    Another collection focusing on Romanian literature is n’autor, launched
    by Nemira this year. A collection that describes the world we live in, the
    reality of our days and of the past, snapshots of Romanian society and of the
    world, the constantly changing mankind. Eli Badica:


    The latest volume, which we launched at the Gaudeamus Fair,
    is a novel entitled The night between the worlds, by Irina Georgescu Groza.
    Irina made her debut with a volume of short stories brought out by Casa de
    Pariuri Literare 2 years ago, and now she is back with this splendid novel,
    whose protagonist is a very special little girl living in the communist era. As
    regards how we promote and receive literature, what I can say is that foreign
    literature still benefits from much stronger promotion than Romanian
    literature. But all the responses we have received so far since the launch of
    this collection, n’autor, help me remain an optimist. During our promotion
    tours we talked to bookshop owners, who know better than anyone what sells and
    what doesn’t, and they are optimistic as well. They told me that the recent
    releases in this collection, namely A horse in a sea of swans by Raluca Nagy
    and Stories from a garage by Goran Mrakic, were very well received by
    readers. They were books that people are buying and talk about, from readers to
    bloggers and journalists. This makes me believe in the Romanian public and I
    think it is a good time for the Romanian market, in the sense that Romanian authors
    are increasingly visible and readers are beginning to realise that many of the
    Romanian writers are just as good as foreign ones.

  • Dance at the 28th National Theater Festival

    Dance at the 28th National Theater Festival

    The National Theater Festival brings to Bucharest, from one year to the next, theater shows as well as dance performances, which are genuine artistic events. The festival is very successful and this years edition had to be extended by one day, for the performance of the famous Nederlands Dans Theater, which closed the festival.



    Gabriela Carrizo co-founder together with Franck Cartier of the famous Peeping Tom Belgian troupe, presented her new work, Moeder/Mother at the current edition of the National Theater Festival. Premiered in 2016, Moeder is the second volume of a trilogy of the Peeping Tom troupe which made its debut with Vader/Father in 2014 and will end with Kind/Child in 2019. Gabriela Carizzos choreographic style is original and easy to recognize, while her stage performances create a strong emotional impact, providing a fresh perspective on the theme she approached. In her works, the artist always starts from the idea of the set design. Space was also very important in the creation of Moeder, Gabriela Carizzo told Radio Romania International.




    Dancer and choreographer Ana Maria Lucaciu left Romania at the age of 12, on a scholarship offered by the National Ballet School of Canada. At present, Ana Maria Lucaciu works in the United States. Throughout the years, Ana Maria Lucaciu has come to Romania a couple of times, yet, after 28 years, this year it was the first time when she danced in front of a Romanian audience. The organizers of the National Theater Festival invited Ana Maria Lucaciu with her dance performance ‘Slightly Off Stage, a show she created jointly with Nathan Griswold. It was the first contemporary dance performance for which Ana Maria Lucaciu created the choreography:



    Ana Maria Lucaciu: As of late, Ive felt there are a couple of things I want to say or try. What I see in the world right now is not what I want to say or do. I drew a lot of my inspiration from the clowning workshops which I took part in. Clowning strips one bare, it reveals what is human and non-human, and I wanted to see if I can achieve that through choreography and through everything I know about dance. I started from the slightly absurd situation, when somebody tells you something, and in support of that they use the phrase ‘they told me that, or ‘they say that or ‘they did that. But who are they? So, this is where it started from. Then I wanted “them to be in charge of the stage. I wanted everything to come from high up, not from us. Everything is ordered. And nothing is as it should be. I liked the idea that we, being on stage, should be subject to an exterior force from outside the stage.



    Romania was represented in the dance section of the Festival by the production “Charity/To_R of Studio M from Sfantu Gheorghe, directing and choreography by Pal Frenak. Imola Marton, director of Studio M:



    Imola Marton: “Pal Frenak told us he wanted to do a show based on the idea of imaginary charity, which can equally be a wedding and alms giving…The production features a situation in between reality and imagination, dwelling on various human relationships and states of mind – loneliness, the inability of getting in touch with another person or with ourselves, conflicts, love, various states of mind from gaiety to the feeling stirred by participation in charity. Pal Frenak creates images focusing on those states of mind. That is why, the show does not have an explicit story, but in a way it is a very lyrical and visual piece.



    As we said earlier, the National Theatre Festival ended with a dance show, presented by Nederlands Dans Theater. It was an event not only for the audiences but also for the members of Nederlands Dans Theater, as choreographer Paul Lightfoot, the artistic director of the company told us: “Its been 12 years since I came here. Coming back to Romania it was very important for me to show the diversity of our work, how incredibly chameleonic the company and the shows we produce can be, as everything we bring over is created in our company. Nederlands Dans Theater presented four shows: “Shoot the Moon by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot, “Woke Up Blind by Marco Goecke, “The Statement by Crystal Pite and “Vladimir by Hofesh Shechter.




    The show “Vladimir has recently had its premiere. Hofesh Shechter, one of the most interesting artists in Great Britain, signs not only the choreography but also the music of the show. As theatre critic Oana Stoica said, “the shows of Nederlands Dans Theater were a most appropriate conclusion of the National Theater Festival.


    (translated by: Eugen Nasta)

  • The Iasi International Theater Festival for Young Audience

    The Iasi International Theater Festival for Young Audience

    Organized by the
    ‘Luceafarul’ Theater for Children and Youth, the festival addresses spectators
    with a young spirit, irrespective of their age. The program is very daring and
    targets all categories of audience.


    Oltiţa Cîntec is
    the artistic director of the ‘Luceafarul’ Theater and the selector of the
    festival that took place in early October.






    Oltiţa Cîntec: Our festival has a unique identity both in
    the region and in the country, and it targets young audiences. Young means
    young spirit, a young cultural age, no matter the people’s biological age.
    Their youth consists in their openness towards new, unusual cultural
    experiences. We target those audiences who have known and still know how to
    preserve the young dimension of their personality, which should be fostered all
    throughout one’s life, no matter the age.






    A young audience
    needs new challenges. This year, the theme of the festival was ‘Otherwise’.

    Oltiţa Cîntec: Every year we come up with a new theme, a
    new motto for our events, which are very diverse. Events start at 9 a.m. every
    day and end late at night. Mornings are for children while the midday and the
    afternoon are dedicated to specialists. The evenings are for the audiences over
    14, whose cultural age is hard to define. We have a very dense, varied
    schedule. We have daring forms of show – participatory theatre, documentary
    theater, reading shows and street shows.






    The festival
    also includes performance art. This year’s program included ‘NOK!NOK!’ a free
    adaptation of the book ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ by Joan Didion. The
    project is part of the Performing Arts Program of the National Contemporary Art
    Museum and the concept belongs to actress Nicoleta Lefter who is also the
    scriptwriter and director of the show:






    Nicoleta Lefter:
    Together with actress Flavia Giurgiu,
    who is playing in the show, with Ioana Bodale, a visual artist, and Alexandru
    Raptis, the sound engineer, we conceived a performance about the fear of
    loneliness. About how deep loneliness can penetrate a human being to reduce him
    or her to numbness and lack of reaction. And we started from the case described
    in the book, in which a famous writer loses her husband while she is preparing
    dinner. Everything that follows is a flow of thoughts, like an analysis of each
    reaction, each gesture, and each heartbeat behind this fear of loneliness.








    Oltiţa Cîntec
    believes that the times when spectators simply sat in their chairs in
    contemplation are long gone and that audience should be ‘jostled’ by the dramatic
    art. Thus, the program of the International Theater Festival for Young Audience
    also included shows that built on direct interaction with the audience.






    ‘The Author’ by
    Tim Crouch directed by Bobi Pricop, a production of the Marin Sorescu National
    Theater of Craiova is certainly a challenging show. It is the 2nd
    text of the British playwright after An Oak Tree staged in Piatra Neamt by
    the young director. A playwright who revolutionized the relationship between
    the audience and the stage performance, and between the author and the stage
    performance Bobi Pricop says. What prompted him to come up with this formula
    for his stage performance?










    Bobi Pricop: I think that, being a sort of control
    freak, these attempts and the encounter with this playwright whom I find
    fabulous, who proposes such great risk and such an intense unknown, is an
    exercise of understanding how I work and how I succeed in managing this risk…
    In the Author there is no set design at all, there is no acting area, there
    are only two large benches for spectators facing one another, with no space
    between them whatsoever. The show begins with ten minutes of silence, when
    eventually, people from the audience begin wondering what’s all this about,
    what is going on, whether something is going to start, or not… In the end
    actors are being recognized by members of the audience…






    ‘I’ve been to
    lots of stage performances where I had the feeling that the audience, as well
    as I, get really bored. That theater has become museum-like’, young stage
    director Cristian Ban confessed. At the festival in Iasi, Ban was invited with
    his stage performance Let us know each other better, based on a collective
    script and produced by the Ioan Slavici Classical Theater in Arad. ‘Have you
    ever stolen anything?’, ‘What do you think?’ or ‘Are you happy?’… These are the
    questions the four actors in the cast have launched for the audience, in an
    unusual stage endeavor, a live survey, but for which the answers are anonymous. Speaking about that, here is stage director
    Cristian Ban.






    Cristian Ban: I wanted to put up such a show that the
    audience never stops thinking about it. So that it may be like an inner stage
    show everyone experiences in their own way. I wanted to talk, at the theater,
    about things we don’t speak about. Adult
    things, or more intimate things, having to do with money, sex, happiness…Things
    you get to talk about only with your very close friends. The challenge for us
    was to not mince our words and speak about them outright, for one hour, at the
    theater.






    The
    International Theater festival for Young Audiences in Iasi this year extended
    to 18 venues across the city, conventional or non-conventional spaces, indoor
    or outdoor premises.






    Oltita Cintec: Obviously the focus is the Luceafarul
    Theater, with its two halls, but we ‘colonized’ the whole city with stage
    performances of all sorts. We also wanted to bring theatrical gifts to those
    who these days are in the hospital, for instance…because we want our festival,
    just like any other genuine festival, to be a celebration, we want it to be a
    joy for everybody. We acted on the street, on the sidewalk; we acted in malls,
    because, in addition to the public coming to the theater on a regular basis, we
    were the ones who went out the lookout for an audience that, for various
    reasons, does not manage to set foot in a theater. And then I said the only
    thing we could do was to go look for an audience ourselves, in those unconventional
    areas…I am positive that many of the people in the audience, through those
    unconventional shows, discovered theater, discovered that it is not a starched
    coat, too tight at the neck or waist, quite the contrary, it is a vivid,
    extraordinary art, which builds emotional bridges with the audience, and that
    is the most important thing of all.



  • A Prince and a Half

    A Prince and a Half

    A Prince and a Half is the third
    film directed by Ana Lungu. It had its world premiere at the 2018 Sarajevo Film
    Festival, and can be seen in Romania as of September. The film tells the story
    of a charismatic trio: a divorced father, played by Marius Manole, a single
    woman, played by Iris Spiridon, and a gay man, played by Istvan Teglas. They
    live together in an apartment in Bucharest, and the point of tension appears
    the moment Iris falls in love with a Hungarian writer from Transylvania, played
    by Laszlo Matray. Here is Ana Lungu:




    A Prince and a Half is related to two
    previous projects of mine. I worked on my first movie, The Belly of the Whale,
    with a friend of mine, Ana Szel, and this time I’ve made the movie with another
    good friend of mine, Iris Spiridon. In both cases, we decided that we would
    write scripts inspired by their life, and right from the start we decided that
    they would play the leading role. It is true that we tried to recreate a
    certain world, a certain social crust, that of people around 30 or 40 years of
    age, who are still trying to seek their place in contemporary Romanian society.
    These are people that are somewhat aimless, maladapted. For this reason, we
    picked our characters to be a divorced dad, a gay guy and a single woman. I
    believe that what characterizes this generation, to which I belong, and which
    is depicted in the movie, is the fact that it does not play by the classical
    rules of maturity. I tried not to pass judgment or make value judgments, but I
    believe that the family in which I grew up, a traditional family, is less and
    less encountered. This was another topic that continues to concern us, me and
    my co-writer, Iris Spiridon.




    Iris Spiridon, lead actress and
    co-writer of the movie, plays an actress with a fairly alien universe: she
    loved Jesus as a small girl, reads one book per day, and will only act in
    productions that she deems artistically valuable. Here is Iris Spiridon talking
    about the film:




    We find in this film all the topics
    that preoccupy us, Ana and me. We have been talking for years about these
    things, the two of us and our friends have become accustomed to speaking openly
    about these things. I dislike talking about banal things, and I find myself
    talking about serious things, even when talking to strangers. I ask them if
    they have faith, what they think about love, I ask them about serious things.
    Which is why many times people feel scared about questions like that, but I
    think that it is the only solution if you don’t want to waste time. I have
    decided, together with Ana, to introduce in the movie this topic of death, a
    topic that concerns me a lot, and is present in all my shows. During the
    shooting of the movie itself, one friend of mine happened to pass away, and
    that made me think even more seriously about these things. But it all started
    with my friend, and with Marius and Istvan, and I remember I wrote to Ana that
    it would be a pity for this relationship to get lost. I thought that these
    things would do well to be preserved somewhere, for this story to be
    immortalized somewhere, because we may never be this way again. This was our
    youth, and it seemed proper for it to remain somewhere.




    Ana Lungu told us what it was like
    to make a film with friends, for a small amount of money, without financing
    from the National Cinema Center, a film in which people play themselves:




    As Iris herself was saying, and as
    actor Marius Manole jokingly pointed out, this movie has been repeating itself
    for the last fifteen years, when they have been having this friendship. As for
    our work methodology, here is how it goes: we started making a script, which we
    wrote and re-wrote for two years. We had fun, but, as in any serious endeavor,
    we had tough moments, when we couldn’t find solutions for the movie. Our
    intention was to build a few situations which we rehearsed, we filmed the
    rehearsals, and picked what we liked. This was how we worked. I think that the
    lack of budgeting can in this case be considered an advantage, because we had a
    very small team, and I, as a director, like a lot to work with small teams,
    which I believe helps people be more like themselves.




    In addition to the actors we already
    mentioned, the movie ‘A Prince and a Half’ also features director Radu Afrim
    and choreographer Razvan Mazilu.

  • Ana Simon. Unusual Encounters

    Ana Simon. Unusual Encounters

    Reputed scholar, writer, director and translator Ana Simon left
    Romania more than 50 years ago and settled in Geneva, Switzerland, after a
    doctoral scholarship in Spain. She was born in Caras Severin county, south-western
    Romania. Few things are known about her in her native country though, but a
    first step in changing this state of affairs was taken by Alina Mazilu, Vasile
    Bogdan and Cornel Ungureanu who wrote a book entitled Ana Simon. Unusual Encounters. The book appeared at the Diacritic
    Publishing House and was launched in late September in Timisoara, western
    Romania.

    We caught up with Alina Mazilu, one of the authors who also
    coordinated the book launch:


    From my point of view the book is
    a beginning because few things are known about Ana Simon in Romania and that’s
    a pity. I wouldn’t say it’s unfair because Ana didn’t want to promote herself
    very much. Few things are known and I believe that has to change and people should
    know more about her. And that’s why we wrote the book; it’s a book about and
    with Ana… It consists of interviews and manages to reveal Ana Simon’s complex
    personality. She is the most generous human being I have ever met. We wanted
    our book not to reveal everything from the beginning but keep the suspense and
    allow readers to discover Ana Simon’s universe for themselves.


    Ana Simon is the wife of Swiss actor Francois Simon and the daughter-in-law
    of Michel Simon, one of Europe’s best actors. Ana is the author of numerous
    films and poetry volumes and has translated works by Mircea Eliade, Marin
    Sorescu and Miguel de Unamuno. The book is evoking these authors and contains
    several of her poems translated by Marin Sorescu and Jean Grosu.

    Here is Alina
    Mazilu again:


    There are several photos in the book, including one with Mario
    Vargas Llosa in Lima, long before his shot to fame. It also has letters from
    Ana’s very good friend Ion Negoitescu and a letter from Emil Cioran. There is
    also a portrait drawn by the famous German graphic artist Margarethe Krieger,
    another good friend of Ana’s. Right on the book cover there is a great portrait
    by Chilean painter Jose Venturelli, a close friend to Pablo Neruda. Various
    photos with her great love, Francois Simon, as well as with Ion Vianu.


    Ana’s entire work, literary reviews, film presentations and interviews,
    poems and translations are borne of admiration, writes Alina Mazilu in her
    book. Ana herself admitted that admiration was what enabled her to create.
    Let’s listen to an interview she gave to Radio Romania International on the
    occasion of the book launch in Timisoara:

    Everything I did came out of
    great admiration. Maybe it was my background that also counted, as I
    specialized in world and comparative literature and was always interested in
    the world of artists. Artists come from somewhere and reveal what they can from
    their world. And I did exactly that, revealing as much as I could out of this
    admiration in a film.


    The book also comprises the cover of a volume about Michel Simon and
    Francois Simon, father and son, which Ana coordinated. Alina Mazilu:


    It’s a small part from the
    complex works Ana has done in order to recover and strengthen the image of the
    two actors, Michel and Francois, father and son. Actually, upon the death of
    Francois, Ana devoted herself almost entirely to the project focusing on their
    image. She dedicated books, poems and reviews to them and she made great
    efforts so that people would recognise the value of Francois Simon, because he
    was a great French-speaking actor and founder of the Theatre de Carouge, which
    is still functional in Geneva today… Ana went to great lengths to keep his
    image alive.


    A traveller around the world,
    spending her time mostly in Geneva, Paris and Barcelona, Ana Simon returns
    home, in Romania’s Banat region, in the west, on a regular basis. What is home
    for her?

    Home… is just what home
    was for Camus. My country was my mother and this meant home. I haven’t had a
    home ever since. I had temporary homes, because, being married to Francois, he
    was involved in making films and we were together all the time. We travelled a
    lot and we returned from time to time to rest. Home was where we were together,
    and, since I’ve lost my parents, there’s no home any more. Camus used to say
    that his country was his mother. And then he no longer had a country. I have
    always had a home, because language is important, because I am linked to
    Romania through my education, and if something happened to it, I would defend
    it. I always start criticising others before I criticise Romania. It’s the
    country of my birth, the place of my spiritual education. I cannot be French or
    Swiss.


    Ana Simon. Unusual Encounters is a book that urges you to find out
    more about Ana Simon’s life. A life like a dream. Here is Alina Mazilu:


    Each of the three
    authors had totally unusual encounters with Ana Simon. Each of them related to
    her from the perspective of their first encounter. Their encounter had
    surrealistic elements, I’d say. And each of them described the encounter in
    their own manner and style. I didn’t want the book to be dry and hard to read.
    I wanted it to be read like a well-written novel. And I hope I succeeded in my
    attempt.

  • FILIT International Festival of Literature and Translation in Iasi

    FILIT International Festival of Literature and Translation in Iasi

    The 6th International Festival of Literature and Translation hosted by the city of Iasi, in northeastern Romania, between October 3 and 7, brought together authors boasting millions of copies sold all over the world, authors nominated for or winners of prizes such as National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, Goncourt, the EU Prize for Literature, or the Nordic Council Literature Prize. The list of guests included Jonathan Franzen (USA), Jón Kalman Stefánsson (Iceland), Kamila Shamsie (Great Britain), Sylvie Germain (France), Iuri Andruhovici (Ukraine), Eduardo Caballero (Spain), Evald Flisar (Slovenia), Catherine Lovey (Switzerland), Lluis-Anton Baulenas (Spai), Goce Smilevski (Macedonia), Roland Orcsik (Hungary), Sveta Dorosheva (Ukraine/Israel), Lorenzo Silva (Spain), Yannick Haenel (France), Tomas Zmeskal (the Czech Republic), Carl Frode Tiller (Norway), Catherine Gucher (France).



    Here is writer and screenwriter Florin Lazarescu, one of the founders and organizers of the most important festival of literature in Romania: “FILIT is a very big project, it’s actually a synthesis of several projects, and each of them is so complex, that it could be described as a festival in itself. It includes the FILIT evenings, hosted by the National Theatre, events hosted in the central tent, and some 40 events unfolding in five days. I would like to mention some of the events such as those at the Childhood Home, at the Fantasy House, and the much appreciated ‘Writers in high-schools’ project. But, as I said, these are events that are so different from one another, each with their own structure. We are talking about 130 events organized in five days. FILIT is actually a show of literature. If I were to speak of the Poetry Night alone, we organized a marathon, with 50 of today’s best poets participating. They are not as famous as those participating in the FILIT nights, such as Jonathan Franzen of the US, Sylvie Germain of France or Eric Vuillard, the winner of Prix Goncourt. But they too attract a large audience. And I think this is one of FILIT’s successes, to attract an extremely large audience. For instance, we had a guest who told us he knew about FILIT from the famous Russian writer Evgeny Vodolazkin, who characterized the festival as extraordinary.”



    Besides writers, FILIT brings together hundreds of professionals from the cultural environment: translators, editors, festival organizers, literary critics, booksellers, book distributors, managers and journalists. Florica Ciodaru-Courriol has translated from Romanian into French and had books by Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, Rodica Draghincescu, Marta Petreu, Iulian Ciocan, Ioan Popa, Catalin Pavel, Horia Ursu, published at such publishers as Jacqueline Chambon, Non Lieu, l’Age d’Homme, Autre Temps, Autrement and Didier Jeunesse.



    We asked her to tell us about the events she participated in at this year’s edition of the festival: “I came to FILIT to present a Francophone writer, Catherine Lovey, who was published by an important publishing house in France, and whose books I have translated from French into Romanian. At FILIT I ran several translation workshops, one titled ArsTraducendi, for students with the National College in Iasi. I understand that top students of the best high-schools will be attending. I met part of them last year as well at FILIT, when I had a very interesting workshop which I jointly ran with my husband, translator Jean Louis Curriol. Together we’ll also take part in a conference staged by the Department of French language of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, a conference moderated by translator and Professor Cristina Modreanu. For that meeting I picked a short fragment from “The Bunker” a novel by an upcoming young writer Tudor Ganea, so we will be working on that book. Another event I’m participating in is a meeting with French and Romanian publishers, a meeting themed ‘Who cares about Romanian literature’ because I do care about Romanian literature.“



    A novelty of this edition is the launch of the collection ‘Legendary writers’, which seeks to bring center-stage such Romanian writers as Ion Creangă, Mihai Eminescu or Mihail Sadoveanu to whom museums are dedicated, that are part of the network of the Iasi National Museum of Romanian Literature.



    Jointly with 10 other contemporary Romanian writers, writer and journalist Adela Greceanu took the challenge of participating in the project themed Legendary writers, and wrote Vasile Alecsandri’s Story.



    Speaking about that, here is Adela Greceanu herself: ”Vasile Alecsandri’s story cannot be taken out of the context of his generation, the generation of 1848, a generation that was extremely important for our modern history, in fact everything began with that generation. It is from them that everything began and from their parents, those far-sighted Moldavian and Wallachian boyars, who, despite their propensity for Eastern clothes as seen in the epoch’s paintings, decided to send their children to study in Paris and in other European capitals. So Vasile Alecsandri went to Paris where he learnt of progress and modernity, and of how to make a revolution. They subsequently returned to the Romanian principalities, trying to apply what they had learnt from the French revolutionaries. Also in Paris they learnt about the idea of nation-state which they wanted to bring to the Romania principalities, and eventually they succeeded to make that dream come true. Those were some great times in Romania’s history.”



    The FILIT International Festival of Literature and Translation in Iasi is a project financed by the Iasi County Council through the Iasi National Museum of Romanian Literature. This year’s edition is also run under the aegis of the European Commission.

  • The 30th edition of the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt

    The 30th edition of the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt

    The 30th edition of the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt unfolded between September 20th and October the 1st. In 2018, the 30th edition of the festival coincided with the 60th anniversary of the Youth Theatre in Piatra Neamt. It was the first theatre festival hosted by a city outside the capital Bucharest. Its inaugural edition was held in 1969. Since it is also the first festival dedicated to children and youngsters, the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt this year was, indeed, a very special anniversary edition. The theme of the festival this year was “The Archives of Insecurity. It is an ironical, yet serious wording, hinting at the history of the festival, but also at its present. Stage director and playwright Gianina Carbunariu is the manager of the Youth Theatre, as well as the curator of the festival. She explains this years theme:



    Gianina Carbunariu: “Since it was the 30th edition, an anniversary one, we revisited the Youth Theatres very generous archives. We discovered very interesting things. I went deeper into some of the themes we wanted to explore, so for some time we were archivists. At the same time, the theatre show connected to the reality were living in is some sort or archive of the present moment. Also, these are trying times, its not at all easy… And then, the festival, bringing together those creators with their stage performances or other events – talks, workshops – becomes an archive itself. We want the emphasis to be laid on the topics very many of the guest artists have looked into, namely the desire that we have, today, to archive our own fears, our own ambitions, aspirations, incapacities. We do that through all possible means of communication.



    Given that theatre festivals are held in many cities from across Romania, there is a need, Gianina Carbunariu says, to “place ourselves in the position of thinking through all the directions we want to pursue and find ourselves a very specific position against that backdrop.



    Gianina Carbunariu: “I believe the festival is still in its early days. And I think that is rather something good, because the festival has reinvented itself throughout the years, maintaining some clear directions. But what seems to be most interesting to me is that apart from the initial directions – originality, contemporary plays, young creators, forming young audiences – which do make the cornerstone of the festival, each time the curators brought something new, each time they reinvented the concept of the festival. Speaking about this years edition of the festival, we had several sections. First, theres the ‘Young creators section. The main participation requirement was age, which should be under 30. We wanted to promote artists who are still at the beginning of their career.



    Ligia Ciornei pursued a film directing and film production programme with the University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography. In 2017, Ligia Ciorneis short-reel production “Vintage participated in the Cannes Film Festival. At the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt, Ligia Ciornei brought her stage performance “Grounded by George Brant, a show produced by the DOCTORS STUDIO Cultural Association in Bucharest. The cast features talented actress Isabela Neamtu and marks Ligia Ciorneis debut as a stage director. The character in “Grounded is a woman-pilot of a bomber who becomes a wife and a mother. However, when she returns from maternity leave and wants to fly once again, the system “reconverts her, sending her to pilot drones in the desert. Speaking about that, here is Ligia Ciornei herself:



    Ligia Ciornei: “My output so far includes three or four short-reels where I speak about strong women. My most recent documentary was about Roxana Tudose, an international sports shooting champion. Actually, my short-reels also delve in stereotypes of toughness and womanhood.



    Of the original text, Ligia Ciornei opted for keeping the topics which are relevant to the Romanian audiences.



    Ligia Ciornei: “Family and work, particularly the latter, which is rather unusual in the play, and thats what sort of made it tick, as she is an F-16 pilot, the relationship between work and family life …



    This years edition of the Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt also included a national section where artists of various ages were invited, with the aim of getting connected to reality, to core issues in Romanian society and in contemporary society in general. A relevant selection criterion was for the stage shows to come up with dialogue topics. Initiated in the early 1990s, the international section has been reintroduced by manager and curator Gianina Carbunariu. Guest performances were “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, written and directed by Joel Pommerat, “Antonio and Beatrix, a co-production by Companhia de Teatro de Braga, Theatro Circo and the Youth Theatre and, finally, Gianina Carbunarius “Work in Progress, a stage performance produced by Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione. Based on intense documentation, the performance looks into the working conditions of workers across Europe, a topic Gianina Carbunariu has been concerned with, for quite a few years now.



    Gianina Carbunariu: “Some things happen, starting with workers being vulnerable because of their contracts, whose validity is getting shorter and shorter. On the other hand, a great many things have to do with the new circumstances of todays society. It is increasingly difficult to tell working hours from someones time off. The moment you close the office door behind you, you are not free. The phone keeps ringing, then there are the emails…I did interviews with around a hundred people in the city of Modena and around the city, people aged between 25 and 30 or 40 who have a job or who are looking for a job, with people who are on strike, with people who emigrated to Italy, with the famous ‘badantas.. The themes have a European scope, since changes on the labour market are based on global mechanisms that are reflected in one region, obviously, yet such themes have to do with these sometimes dramatic changes as regards stability, even the safety of the working conditions, of the way people go about their work.



    The Theatre Festival in Piatra Neamt seeks to be a moment of reflection on theatre as well a place bringing people together. With details on that, here is Gianina Carbunariu, the general manager of the Youth Theatre:



    Gianina Carbunariu: “As a festival curator, I am trying to draw attention to the fact that a festival does not only mean a selection of stage performances. A festival means the encounter between artists and the audience, between the artists themselves, it is the confrontation of theatrical practices…Beyond the selection, a festival is a moment of reflection about theatre and the world we live in. It is a moment of socialization, when we exchange ideas, it is even a moment when we can feel we are together. And feel really fine, together. As a fellowship, but also as spectators.


    (translated by: Eugen Nasta)


  • Sebastian Stan

    Sebastian Stan


    The guest of honor of this year’s edition of the
    American International Film Festival, actor Sebastian Stan, had a number of
    meetings with the Romanian audience, and talked about his Hollywood career, his
    collaborations and meetings with famous actors and directors, such as Nicole
    Kidman, Natalie Portman, Matt Damon or Michael Haneke. He was first cast in a
    film at the age of 10, but the role that got him international fame was the one
    in the American TV series Gossip Girl.
    In the most recent film of the trilogy Captain
    America, he plays the lead role, alongside Robert Downey Junior, Scarlet
    Johanson, Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones.


    In spite of the fact that Captain America, in
    which he even has several lines in Romanian, is the film that brought him
    international fame, Sebastian Stan counts on the less commercial films and
    favors art films, even if they are low-budget. Sebastian Stan agreed to give an
    interview in Romanian to the ambassador of the American International Film
    Festival, journalist Andreea Esca:


    At present, this type of films, the less
    commercial ones, are difficult to make. This is hard even in the US, because
    it’s the blockbusters that bring money, so most producers opt for them. Of
    course, among these super-productions, there are very good films as well. But
    the ones I grew up with are the type of The
    Godfather, Goodfellas, landmark
    films of the 1970s. So for me the film I,
    Tonya, was an opportunity which you don’t come across very often in
    America. This film tackles some very important themes. So I was very happy to
    be a part of the team.


    Sebastian Stan was born on August 13, 1982, in Constanta. He moved to
    Vienna, together with his mother, when he was eight years old. When he was 10,
    he played his first role in a film, 71 fragments of a Chronology of Chance, directed
    by the world-famous Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. Two years later, his
    family crossed the Ocean and settled in Rockland County, New York. Sebastian graduated
    from the Rutgers University in New Jersey and studied at Globe Theatre in
    London for a year.






    While in Bucharest, ahead of the
    screening of the film I, Tonya, Sebastian Stan talked about his life and career.
    He referred, among other things, to his special bond with the Romanian
    language, as he spent the first four years of his life in Romania, a communist
    country at the time. Years later, his friends in the film industry used to tease his, calling him the
    communist.


    When asked to
    give some pieces of advice to budding actors, Sebastian Stan said it is
    important to focus on the process and not on rewards or recognition. Two of the
    Romanian directors whom he admires a lot are Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristian
    Mungiu, but in order to play in a Romanian film he should spend at least a
    month in Romania, to regain his Romanian accent.



    (Translated by E. Enache & D. Vijeu)

  • Sebastian Stan

    Sebastian Stan


    The guest of honor of this year’s edition of the
    American International Film Festival, actor Sebastian Stan, had a number of
    meetings with the Romanian audience, and talked about his Hollywood career, his
    collaborations and meetings with famous actors and directors, such as Nicole
    Kidman, Natalie Portman, Matt Damon or Michael Haneke. He was first cast in a
    film at the age of 10, but the role that got him international fame was the one
    in the American TV series Gossip Girl.
    In the most recent film of the trilogy Captain
    America, he plays the lead role, alongside Robert Downey Junior, Scarlet
    Johanson, Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones.


    In spite of the fact that Captain America, in
    which he even has several lines in Romanian, is the film that brought him
    international fame, Sebastian Stan counts on the less commercial films and
    favors art films, even if they are low-budget. Sebastian Stan agreed to give an
    interview in Romanian to the ambassador of the American International Film
    Festival, journalist Andreea Esca:


    At present, this type of films, the less
    commercial ones, are difficult to make. This is hard even in the US, because
    it’s the blockbusters that bring money, so most producers opt for them. Of
    course, among these super-productions, there are very good films as well. But
    the ones I grew up with are the type of The
    Godfather, Goodfellas, landmark
    films of the 1970s. So for me the film I,
    Tonya, was an opportunity which you don’t come across very often in
    America. This film tackles some very important themes. So I was very happy to
    be a part of the team.


    Sebastian Stan was born on August 13, 1982, in Constanta. He moved to
    Vienna, together with his mother, when he was eight years old. When he was 10,
    he played his first role in a film, 71 fragments of a Chronology of Chance, directed
    by the world-famous Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. Two years later, his
    family crossed the Ocean and settled in Rockland County, New York. Sebastian graduated
    from the Rutgers University in New Jersey and studied at Globe Theatre in
    London for a year.






    While in Bucharest, ahead of the
    screening of the film I, Tonya, Sebastian Stan talked about his life and career.
    He referred, among other things, to his special bond with the Romanian
    language, as he spent the first four years of his life in Romania, a communist
    country at the time. Years later, his friends in the film industry used to tease his, calling him the
    communist.


    When asked to
    give some pieces of advice to budding actors, Sebastian Stan said it is
    important to focus on the process and not on rewards or recognition. Two of the
    Romanian directors whom he admires a lot are Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristian
    Mungiu, but in order to play in a Romanian film he should spend at least a
    month in Romania, to regain his Romanian accent.



    (Translated by E. Enache & D. Vijeu)

  • The 4th Bucharest International Dance Film Festival

    The 4th Bucharest International Dance Film Festival

    For the fourth consecutive year, Romania’s capital city played host
    to the popular Bucharest International Dance Film Festival. Unique in Romania,
    the Festival is produced by the TangajDance Association and offers film
    screens, performances, workshops and exhibitions.


    Every year the festival revolves around a core theme. This year it
    is called RETRACING. Choreographer Simona Deaconescu, the festival’s artistic
    director, told us more:


    2018 is the year of the
    Great Union Centennial, and we’ve given this event due consideration. To me and
    my team the last 100 years are very important. Hence we’ve tried to represent
    it from the point of view of people who’ve experienced this period, whether
    we’re talking about generations of people who lived in this period, the way
    they endured and the perseverance with which they tried to live their lives and
    fulfil their dreams… Even if the festival has this historic theme, it very
    much refers to the way people conceive history, their personal interpretation
    of it. It focuses on people’s perception of history through the lens of their
    modern life, looking out to the future as well.


    On the first day of the festival, organisers screened Midnight
    Specials, A selection of Romanian archive films, a program curated in
    cooperation with the Bucharest National Dance Centre, which hosted the
    screening. Here is Corina Cimpoieru, a consultant with the Research Department
    of the National Dance Centre with more details:


    Dance film does not have an
    official or unofficial history, in the sense of a systematic approach to dance
    or setting up a film genre as such. It is rather a retrospective and
    retroactive outlook on the history of Romanian dance, an effort that the
    National Dance Centre started a few years back by means of a series of projects
    in cooperation with the National Film Archive. As a result, we have identified
    scattered dance sequences in difference film genres, from silent films to dance
    reports, newsreels from the 50s, documentary art films produced by the
    Alexandru Sahia Film Studios and so on…


    The Festival’s agenda also included film screenings outside the
    official competition. One such film is the Romanian 3D feature My life
    rehearsed in one leg, directed by Bogdan Mustata, with choreography by Iulia
    Weiss. It is an experimental 3D film, says film director and script writer
    Bogdan Mustata, the recipient of the Golden Bear Award for best short film at
    the 2008 International Berlin Film Festival for A Good Day for a Swim.


    I started out from a series
    of technicalities that have to do with film directing… I wanted to work without
    a narrative and have characters stripped of psychological and social substance
    and just use the tools at my disposal, engage in a simple dialogue with them,
    without touching on human psychology and knowledge of life… Then I started to
    build on that, discussing what we can do with our bodies, and how we can use it.


    Bogdan Mustata also wrote the script, which is an analysis of the
    relation between memory and personal identity. Bogdan Mustata:


    There were two relations.
    One was based on quotes from the films, the other on quotes from theatre plays,
    and I selected the films and the plays from memory. I was interested to see how
    these memories, many of them false and fabricated, help define a person’s
    identity… The films do not all belong to the same genre and are easy to recognize:
    Hiroshima, Last Year at Marienbad, but also Armageddon or Before
    Sunrise. In the case of Before Sunrise, I for one was interested in the kind
    of feeling you get when you meet a stranger and you can redefine yourself,
    telling him everything about yourself. This is what makes meeting new people
    special. Anything you hate about yourself can change, because you are telling
    the story and only you can chose what you say to him. You start making new
    memories. And these feelings and memories create a new identity for us.


    Since 2016, the Bucharest International Dance
    Film Festival has channeled a substantial part of its resources into creating a
    market for the film dance in Romania, by encouraging artists in putting
    together such productions. This is how the National Competition section of the
    Festival was created. Two years later, the number of applications for this
    section has tripled. States Uprooted, the stage direction and choreography of
    which belong to Ioana Turcan, was chosen the best Romanian short film, out of
    the 10 productions shortlisted this year. The film tackles different identities
    and perceptions, different transition rituals, and uprooting in Romania and the
    US. Ioana Turcan says the scenes were shot during her travels in 2012-2017, but
    not especially for this short film:


    This
    is how I work. I have created a personal audiovisual archive, which I keep
    updating every time I travel. I started doing that when I left for the US, in
    2012. I was on a ‘Work and Travel’ programme. I would spend 3 months in the US
    and the rest of the year in Romania. And I noticed social differences, as well
    as differences in terms of outlook, approaches, identity and perceptions. Since
    I was spending a lot of time there, this issue affected me. I no longer knew
    how to look at myself. So the idea was to make a film suitable for screening
    not only in cinema halls, but one that expresses my desire to experiment with
    the environment. Because it has dance scenes, fight scenes, various types of
    video performances, so it is pretty experimental, interdisciplinary I’d say.


    The winner of the International Competition,
    out of the 20 entries, was Night Dancing, a Romanian-British co-production
    directed by Barney Cokeliss, with choreography by Louise Tanoto, Jacob Ingram-Dodd
    and Jason Thorpe.

  • The Man who Brings Happiness

    The Man who Brings Happiness

    ‘I see my novel
    as not only a story about finding your place in the world, but also how you can
    find your way to another by way of narration’, says Catalin Dorian Florescu
    about his most recent novel, ‘The Man Who Brings Happiness’, published by the
    Humanitas Publishing House, translated by Mariana Barbulescu.




    The writer, a
    psychologist by trade, was born in Timisoara, and left Romania at fifteen years
    of age, during communism. Right now he lives in Zurich and is a freelance
    writer. He wrote a number of novels, such as Time of wonders, in 2001, The
    Short Way Home, 2002, and The Blind Masseur, 2006. C.H. Beck publishers printed
    his novels Zaira, in 2008, and Jacob Decided to Love, in 2011.






    He won many
    awards, such as the Anna Seghers Award and the Swiss Book Prize for best book
    in Switzerland. In 2012 he won the Josef von Eichendorf Lifetime Achievement
    Award. Elke Heidenreich from Stern magazine wrote about his most recent book
    that it is ‘a brilliant novel about a century of obliviousness, escape, search
    for fortune, a novel rich in fantasy, beauty, and imaginative imagery. It is
    the pinnacle of his creation. Florescu has time and again proven that he is a
    talented storyteller. Now he proves he is at the peak of his creation.’






    The storyline
    crosses three generations, blending two narratives between the Atlantic, the
    East River, the Danube, the town of Sulina, Coney Island, Broadway, and a leper
    colony. In the background you have the turmoil of early 20th century
    America, the Danube Delta’s wild environment, the tragedy of the fall of the
    Twin Towers, and memories from Romania of yesterday.






    The main
    characters are Ray, an East Coast vaudeville artist, and Elena, a worker in a
    textile factory raised in an orphanage and in foster families. Catalin
    Florescu’s novels are deeply rooted in reality. The central character of the
    novel ‘Zaira’ is based on a famous actress from Timisoara who passed away two
    years ago.






    Research is a
    major part of his writing. In order to write ‘The Man Who Brought Happiness’,
    he spent three years between Europe and America, between New York and the
    Danube Delta. He told us that he used to wake up at four o’clock in the morning
    with the fishers in the Delta, in order to build the character Elena. Here he
    is talking about it:








    Catalin Dorian
    Florescu: I’ve been in Bucharest for two months now, just like last year, in
    an attempt to understand this city, because I was born in Timisoara. I tried to
    understand as much as I could of this city, I saw its nicer parts, and its
    uglier parts, in order to write a novel happening here. It helps a lot with
    research, I throw myself in research, I go and talk to people, I get involved.
    This comes from my job as a psychologist, which is my other passion. It is a
    humanist education that involves very important things that I cultivate in my
    day to day life, such as the way I relate to people, the way to present myself
    to people, the dialog, curiosity, the courage to know yourself. I take into
    view all these aspects when I research a topic. Then, when I write my books, I
    try to forget it all, to use only common sense, like many other writers. I
    focus on watching how people behave, because some choose to be humane in spite
    of how much trouble they have in life, while others don’t. I am deeply
    interested in this great story of existence. It is a story I reiterate in every
    novel I write, and I enrich it with every one of them. My protagonists, who are
    in fact small people, try to go through life without fear, without starving,
    managing to feel like people.








    We asked the
    writer how he reaches out to the reader:


    Catalin Dorian
    Florescu: In this novel, on the night of September 11th to the 12th,
    Elena and Ray hide in a small basement theater on 13th Street in
    Manhattan, and start telling each other their life stories. Elena goes back a
    century in her story about her grandfather in Romania, while Ray goes back a
    century to the early 20th century New York, filled with immigrants.
    In the end, this is a novel about the need to tell stories, maybe in order to
    create a love story between the two in such a dramatic moment. It is a story
    about the need for storytelling. We don’t ever get away from storytelling, we
    keep telling each other stories. What is important is to tell an authentic
    story, the story that shows us the way we are, taking a risk, but putting
    ourselves on display. Each story is in fact built with a Ray and an Elena, who
    come from very different worlds and have very different goals and dreams. To
    get back to the book, Ray believes in the American dream, that he would become
    a star, but he never does. Elena, however, comes from a world without an
    American dream, a very tough world, but maybe she has to learn that she should
    be more confident.






    That was
    Romanian born writer Catalin Dorian Florescu, whose novel The Man Who Brings
    Happiness is now available in Romanian translation.



  • What’s drawing audiences to theatre today?

    What’s drawing audiences to theatre today?

    The relationship between theatre and the public in Sibiu has had a fine and intense progression in time since 2007, when Sibiu was the European Capital of Culture. Each season, the “Radu Stanca National Theatre comes up with a great number of premieres, some of which being jointly staged with the Theatre Faculty in Sibiu. Eight of the most recent productions were staged in late March, in a micro-season thought out to promote theatre among critics and journalists, but also among theatre goers across the country.



    In a bid to keep theatre goers faithful, the National Theatre in Sibiu has come up with several themes for its public, which in recent years has become more and more competent, developing an increasingly refined critical acumen. Here are some of these themes. Bertold Brechts “The Good person of Szechwan, stage-directed by Anca Bradu, is one of the ongoing seasons premieres. The play has launched off a topical question: what does it mean to be kind? In a world riddled with poverty, corruption, vulgarity and savagery, a prostitute has been chosen to restore the world its balance, by the three travelling gods who set out on a quest of the regenerating good. The leading role features Diana Fufezan, one of the most highly-acclaimed actresses of the “Radu Stanca Theatre:



    The text raises many questions. The key question is what it means to be kind. Its about doing good deeds because that‘s how it works, because thats what youre asked to do, or its about doing good because thats how you feel about it, and just do it, even when you feel down sometimes. Yet the others should be fine, notwithstanding. Or you should share with the others the little that you have, so that the others may live, too. And whenever the others oppress you, you should remain a kind person. That is the big question: what does it mean to be kind or stay a kind person?



    Diana Fufezan is very familiar with theatre goers in Sibiu, so we asked her to what extent she believed the public may take an interest in such a theme. Diana Fufezan: “Its quite okay to come to the theatre and just laugh, just relax…That is wonderful, and I like comedies. But I also think it is okay to have the courage to ask yourself some questions. And, when you get home before you fall asleep, maybe you can find an answer, maybe not, but at least you have food for thought. And I think the public in Sibiu is simply wonderful. I’m saying that judging by their reactions and the way they come to the theatre. And the love they welcome us with, no matter what show they come to see, I feel is just about the same, and for that I feel happy and I want to thank them. I think they come to a wide variety of shows and they got used to a great diversity, and they keep coming to all to see all the shows. Its true that, speaking about kindness, the themes of ‘The Good Person of Szechwan are so topical to our time, our country, the world we live in.



    Now that we’ve spoken about kindness, religion and the way we relate to it make up the major theme of the play titled “10, written by Csaba Szekely and stage-directed by Radu Nica, as part of the European project “Be SpectACTive!. The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament are the pretext for the construction of ten contemporary stories. According to playwright Csaba Szekely, “the play captures the characters in both ordinary and exceptional circumstances. Each moral decision made by one of the characters has a major impact on the life of the next character. Stage director Radu Nica has been concerned with religion for some time now. With details on that, here is Radu Nica himself:


    “What I intend to do with the show is to try to make everyone rethink the relationship they have with religion. I think such a discussion is topical in Romania, just like talks about the Peoples Salvation Cathedral and religion as a compulsory subject in school curricula…I hope the show will have an impact on people and they will get more lucid and not only more emotional. But I would like people to think again if they have anything to do with those commandments any longer, today. Therefore, I think this show is quite appropriate for the Romanian public and even for foreign audiences. It somehow comes as a fresco of todays Romanian society, through those lenses, those of the Ten Commandments. “



    Stage-director Radu Nica is a native of Sibiu; he has worked with the actors of the “Radu Stanca Theatre a lot, is very familiar with Sibius theatre goers and takes a keen interest in the publics reactions to the show. Radu Nica:

    Sibiu is hosting the Metropolitan Bishopric of Transylvania. Here, the church plays an important role in society, too. I dont want to lash out at that institution, but just like any other state institution, I think it should be carefully watched by citizens, so that it may not enter the ‘abuse area. The moment you feel there is no monitoring, you can allow yourself to do everything. And if you go over the top, that needs to be contained somehow.



    Also as part of the micro-season at National Theatre in Sibiu, the young stage director Botond Nagy has invited the audience to what he called a “techno-poetic installation, after Henrik Ibsens “Hedda Gabler. Botond Nagy has developed an interest in the Scandinavian universe and believes Hedda Gabler is one of the most beautiful and elaborated, very humane characters. Botond Nagy:


    “Were in a happy situation, as Ibsen has created a world with an abundance of themes. Apart from the anguish and manipulation that are the plays running thread, there is also a very up-to-date theme, social-wise, the financial pressure, the financial crisis, which can be found in all Ibsens plays. And that theme is embodied by Jorgen Tesman. Also, love is crucial in Ibsens plays. The playwright himself had a very colourful life, mirrored in Hedda Gablers relationship with Ejlert Lovborg, a very special and very personal relation, even for myself. Thats where I started off from, sort of…But I think that, primarily, the main theme I was interested in was mans relationship with the world – we dont know where we are, what were going to do, where were heading for. It is about some kind of chaos. I dont know if and when order is restored. Never, perhaps. And perhaps, that is not a problem at all.

  • Prose writer and essayist Gabriela Adamesteanu

    Prose writer and essayist Gabriela Adamesteanu

    The Gheorghe Craciun lifetime achievement award of the Observatorul Cultural magazine this year went to prose writer and essayist Gabriela Adamesteanu. Gabriela Adamesteanus novels “Wasted Morning, “The Equal Way of Every Day, “The Encounter, “Provisional and her short story collections, “Give Yourself a Holiday and “Summer Spring have been translated into 15 languages and have received prestigious awards.



    The novel “The Equal Way of Every Day was nominated for the Jean Monnet European Literature Prize, “Wasted Morning was nominated for the Latin Union literary prize, while “Provisional was a bestseller at the Paris Book Fair in 2013. Her novel “Wasted Morning, published in 1975, was described by Alan Brownjohn in The Times Literary Supplement as follows: “In part it is a wonderfully strange and original study of lost promises and unfulfilled dreams, but the book can also be read as a daring, late-modernist take on the whole society. An extraordinary overview of Romanian modern life.



    The Romanian literary critic Alex Goldis describes the novel “Provisional as the most representative from this author, who is freer than ever to mix individuality and politics. “Provisional proves that Gabriela Adamesteanu has definitively returned to literature and is working on the disturbing odyssey of depicting ‘Man in time, Alex Goldis also writes.



    The collections “The Obsession of Politics (published in 1995) and “The Two Romanias (published in 2000) are part of the authors editorial activity. Gabriela Adamesteanu ran the “22 magazine for 13 years and its cultural supplement “Bucurestiul Cultural for another seven years. For her journalistic career, Gabriela Adamesteanu received the Hellman/Hammett grant by the Human Rights Watch in 2002. She was also the vice-president of the PEN Romanian Centre between 2000 and 2004 and a president of this organisation between 2004 and 2006, as well as an honorary president of the first edition of the Romanian Goncourt Prize in 2013. In 2014, Gabriela Adamesteanu received the French distinction Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.



    Carmen Musat, the editor-in-chief of the Observatorul Cultural magazine, told us more about this years winner of the lifetime achievement award, Gabriela Adamesteanu: “She is a formidable writer whose novels and short stories published before 1989 gained the approval of critics and readers alike. Today, faced with a different readership, her works are just as fresh. Her fiction depicts the ordinary world, people at various stages in their lives, highlighting the tiniest details of human existence. She is comfortable both with the short format of the short story and the broader format of the novel, managing to create entire worlds, possible and fictional alike, that have the power to draw you in. She is the author of novels such as ‘Wasted Morning, ‘The Equal Way of Every Day, ‘Summer-Spring, ‘The Encounter, ‘Provisional, but not only. She is also the author of high quality and exquisite journalistic writing, and she has interviewed people from various walks of life, from very different social and cultural circles. She is an author who has built not only a literary opus, but a magazine as well, which, after she left, was never the same again.



    In her acceptance speech of the Gheorghe Craciun award, Gabriela Adamesteanu recollected a meeting with the late writer Gheorghe Craciun. It happened in 2005, when, alongside other Romanian writers, they participated in the Les Belles Etrangeres Festival in France, a moment that marked the beginning of a process of translating Romanian literature into foreign languages and its opening towards other cultures.



    In her speech, Gabriela Adamesteanu thanked those who supported her in her early days as a writer: “I see Mircea Martin is here, one of the critics who read my debut book. The first book you write is extremely important. After that, you can either continue or give up. I would also like to thank different people, with whom Ive sometimes parted way but who are always in my heart, such as Nora Iuga and Paul Goma, as well as my publishers, because whenever I travel abroad they always ask me: ‘You come from Ceausescus Romania, how did you manage to get these books published?. I cannot explain, but we had literature back then and my books were actually published by the best publishing house in the country, Cartea Romaneasca, which was run by two great prose writers, Marin Preda and George Balaita, who are no longer with us. Id also like to thank my current publisher, Silviu Lupescu, who has supported new literature since 2003. Many thanks also to Catalina Buzoianu, who has created a magical play based on my novel and a performance that has become iconic. She is a great artist, in a country where being a woman and an artist is sometimes difficult. And, of course, Id like to thank my family who have instilled in me some very high intellectual standards, as well as everyone who has stood by me, in a profession which, as Ive said before, is not recommended for a woman, and yet look how many great female writers we have.

  • Solenoid: Book of the Year in Spain

    Solenoid: Book of the Year in Spain

    In early April in Buenos Aires, Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu became the winner of the prestigious Premio Formentor de las Letras 2018, one of the most important literary awards in the world, for lifetime achievement. According to the jury, his works are destined to push forward the radical transformation of human achievement. The panel, one of whose members was writer Alberto Manguel, himself a winner in 2017, also said that the narrative force of the writer managed to expand the limits of fiction, according to the El Pais daily. Right now in its second edition, Solenoid had excellent reviews from the Spanish literary press and criticism, as well as in South America. It was declared best book of 2017 by La Vanguardia, El Periodico, The New York Times en espanol, and had rave reviews in many other periodicals. Andres Ibanez calls it a masterpiece in ABC Cultural. Robert Saladrigas calls it his most important book, writing in La Vanguardia. Babelia, the cultural supplement of El Pais, calls it essential reading, while El Correo calls it a grand, exceptional, unforgettable book.



    Recently, the Humanitas Library at Cismigiu Gardens hosted an event on the publication of the Spanish edition of Cartarescus Solenoid, published by the Madrid based publishing house Impedimenta shortly after its Romanian publication, translated by Marian Ochoa de Eribe, with an afterword by literary critic Marius Chivu. The event was attended by the writer, the translator, and Enrique Redel, head of the Impedimenta publishing house. Also attending were Lidia Bodea, head of Humanitas publishing house, critic Marius Chivu, and the founder of Humanitas, Gabriel Liiceanu.



    Opening the event, Mircea Cartarescu made a few remarks about translation, saying that translators do not simply translate words from one language to another:


    “They carry across a border psychological content, behavioral content, ancient culture, myths, identities which they translate into their own identity. This becomes infinitely harder as the two cultural identities are further apart.”


    “It is relatively simple to translate content that is similar, which stems from similar cultures and worlds. It is simple for me to understand the mentality of contemporary French or German people. However, it is harder and harder to understand a mentality that sinks deeper and deeper, such as the medieval mentality. It is harder to translate into another language The Divine Comedy than to translate The Magic Mountain, or another contemporary work. The distance in time, space, and mentalities are great impediments for translation. Lacking translation, extermination almost assuredly occurs. Translation is a laurel wreath, an olive branch. Translation is perhaps the most important thing happening to human beings. Because it occurs beyond what separates these beings, and what separates them are not only borders, or just different languages. It means entire mentalities; individual mentalities, mentalities of entire peoples, mentalities of large groups. Mediation, translation are fundamental acts. This is why I have immense admiration for translators. For Romanian literature, we only have three or four translators for each country. The shortage is terrible. And it is normal for all Romanian writers to be translated at some point, but we are dealing with only three or four translators, for which reason the competition is stifling. I want to confess my great gratitude not for the fact that I was translated in a multitude of languages, but because I was translated properly. It doesnt matter at all that you have been translated into 100 languages, if the translation is poor. Youre being done a disservice. You have been given a mask that does not represent you. But if you have a good translation, the book is simply reinvented in a different language. Which is why I am happy to work with the best translators of the moment, in at least 10 or 15 European languages. I am utterly happy from this point of view. I am also happy to work with a few wonderful editors. Which is why I am thanking translator Marian Ochoa de Eribe and editor Enrique Redel.”



    Marian Ochoa de Eribe made known in Spain works by Romanian classic authors, such as Panait Istrati, Mihail Sebastian, and Mircea Eliade. Solenoid was not the first encounter with Mircea Cartarescus work for her. She had already translated for Impedimenta the books The Roulette Player (2010), Travesti (2011), Nostalgia (2012), and Beautiful Strangers (2013). At present she is busy translating his book The Levant. Marian Ochoa de Eribe talks about the impact that Solenoid had on her.



    “I worked on Solenoid for a year, isolating myself. I translated almost daily. Of course I had trepidations, I was sleepless and had nightmares. That is what happened to Enrique when he started reading the book, he called me one day and said that he understood what I told him. I would like to say that I completely agree with Gabriel Liiceanu with regard to the three chapters, the three extraordinary steps in Solenoids literature. When I finished a chapter, I thought that you couldnt go any higher literarily and aesthetically. I know I share this feeling about the reception of the book with a lot of readers. This book changes you forever. Translating Mircea Cartarescus literature has changed my existence. But I am also sad, I would have liked to be a naïve reader. But, as a translator, I can no longer be like the others.”



    Enrique Redel, director of Impedimenta Publishing House, spoke about the Cartarescu phenomenon in Spain, and said he was fascinated by Solenoid:


    “For me it was a physical experience, organic. I read without stopping, even though this book should be read drop by drop. During reading, reality changed for me profoundly. I started having nightmares, like Marian said, I woke up with a dead arm, I thought it had paralyzed, it seemed to me that the gentleman drinking his coffee every morning in front of my house was a figment of my imagination. I envy those who can read this book drop by drop, as I said. On the Internet I found many who have taken this approach in reading it, as if the book had various levels. However, I, as an editor, had to focus on certain technical aspects. I am fascinated by Mircea Cartarescus literature, and I enjoy it as much as I enjoy Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, or John Barth.”




  • Mariana Gordan: The Story of the Nomad

    Mariana Gordan: The Story of the Nomad

    When she fled Romania in 1979 with a forged passport, Mariana Gordan risked up to thirty years in a communist jail, for the pretext of having befriended imperialist Brits. She still believed that she could have lost her life if she had stayed in Romania. London, however, a city she has been living in for almost 40 years, provided her with peace of mind, and rewarded her creativity. Mariana Gordan has had exhibitions in some of the top galleries there, such as Pitshanger and ACAVA. She was also been granted the contract to make the monumental paintings decorating three London Metro stations: Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, and Finsbury Park Station.



    She also had solo exhibitions in Paris, Venice, Florence, Avignon, Ulm, Berlin, Tokyo, Seattle and Washington. She believes she is a portrait artist, in spite of what she calls a lack of style, academically speaking. As she put it, quote: “I prefer experimenting, trying to forget what I learned in art school, and use what I learned in museums and in everyday life. Art is personal for me, not an exercise in falling in line with trends, fashions or styles, unquote.



    Right before she fled the country, Mariana Gordan failed the entrance exam for the School of Fine Arts. She was told that she was talented, but not talented enough: “My mother was afraid I could ruin my career. She had an intuition that I was an artist, and that I would not accept an alternative, another career. Shortly after I failed the exam, I found with great difficulty a job as a receptionist at a hotel on the Black Sea coast. There I was drawing portraits for tourists, just sketches, without realizing that people would come to boast about them. When the authorities found out, the manager of the hotel presented her own version, claiming I got money for the portraits, because she suspected I was getting money for the drawings and was not sharing it with her. The next step was to be fired, and then arrested, even if no money was found on me. The British tourists I drew the portraits for got involved, telling them I was fired for no reason, and signed a petition, specifying that I never spoke ill of Romania, and that I was unjustly fired. More than that, as I found out later, these Brits happened to be activists, and they went to gather signatures on my behalf from other tourists. This stirred things up even more, so that in the morning I was arrested for instigating an illegal strike. In addition to that, they said I was conspiring against the Romanian state. These Brits got me a forged passport, and got me out of the country. After I reached England, my escape from the country held the headlines for three months, and the Securitate (the former political police) started threatening me.



    Mariana Gordan wrote her fascinating life story in the book “State Property. My Cold War Memoir, published in 2015 by Charmides Publishing House in Bistrita-Nasaud.



    In this book, Mariana sets aside a good portion of the book to the cultural differences between the Communist Romania of the 1970s and the UK: “The first culture shock was how kind the Brits were. I went to a police precinct to show my forged passport and ask for political asylum. A woman police constable brought me a cup of tea, and I was convinced that the tea was drugged. I could not believe that the police could be so kind, that they would treat you as a human being. It was a world of difference from Romania, where the authorities and the police treated you like scum. When I saw how different the police was there, I was afraid that it was being set up. I could not believe that there can be human beings in a uniform that would treat you so humanely. The second culture shock came shortly after I reached the UK. My first contact there was sculptor Paul Neagu, who told me to go to Durham University, and I signed up for art school. It seemed unbelievable to me, because there are no entrance exams there, I went for an interview and gave them my portfolio. After the interview with the commission, I was admitted with acclaim. I could not believe there could be a country that civilized, having admissions like that. However, things changed after I started classes. I was shocked that most of my colleagues and teachers were leftist. However, they were leftist on the Trotsky model. And that happened in the middle of the Cold War. I was coming from a country full of indoctrination, and here I was, being told by free people that they wanted a world government.



    In 1984, Mariana Gordan registered for the GLC Clement Attlee Portrait Competition public tender. Its purpose was to make a statue portraying Clement Attlee, British PM after WWII. The statue was supposed to be placed in the center of London, in front of the Limehouse Library. Of the five hundred pieces, the jury, headed by Dame Elisabeth Frink, Mariana Gordan’s won. However, the jury changed its position when they found out that the winner was a twenty-five year-old from an eastern country. Mariana was left being the winner in name only, because the money and the project went to someone else. After 1989, Mariana Gordan started holding exhibitions in Romania, too. Her paintings and sculptures were exhibited in Bucharest, Targu Mures, Cluj and Bistrita. Her most recent exhibition was put up in March at the Center of Architectural Culture in Bucharest, entitled “Spring Without and Within.



    According to Mariana, “Spring Within refers to spring-cleaning, more to the point referring to new hardwood floors, painted in an abstract expressionist style, lavishly varnished. “Spring Without refers to a collection of small landscapes, 20 by 20 cm, in oil, painted with the sgraffitto technique, consisting of several layers of color laid using the handle of the brush, leaving room for the background color to be seen.