Libertate

Romanian cinema, like a significant part of the Romanian society, is still obsessed with the events of December 1989, which led to the fall of communism. Romania was the last country among the former allies of the USSR in which this regime change took place and the only one in which the transition was violent. Neither historians nor courts nor ordinary people have yet given a clear verdict on those events: what really happened? Was there a popular uprising, a coup d'état, media stage, or a combination of all these? 'Libertate' ('Freedom'), the film directed by Tudor Giurgiu, focuses on what happened in Sibiu, a city that in 1989 had about 150 thousand inhabitants, located in Transylvania, in the geographical center of Romania. In a style that can be characterized as docu-drama, the film follows the struggles between the forces that until the eve had been allies in the preservation of communist order and legality, and which now find themselves - out of manipulation, out of inexperience, out of fear - engaged in - a violent conflict.

Tudor Giurgiu aimed and largely succeeded to create an immersive experience for the spectators, recreating the atmosphere of chaos in Sibiu on December 22, 1989 and in the ten days that followed. He created a gallery of characters in constant motion, most wearing army, militia or security forces uniforms. After some time, a few main characters emerge: Viorel Stanese - officer in the judicial militia who shows up for work and finds himself defending weapon in hand the institution's headquarters against an unclear enemy, Leahu - a taxi driver but perhaps also a security informant who finds himself with a gun in his hand at the wrong time, the army colonel Dragoman who evolves in days or maybe just hours from revolutionary to torturer. Almost all the characters had been collaborators and perhaps even profiteers of the old regime. The order imposed by the dictatorship collapses, everybody fears and suspects everybody else, some find themselves in the camp of the victors, others are categorized as 'terrorists' and become prisoners in a swimming pool emptied of water, along with some of the victims of the repression. In an anthological scene, protesting the conditions of detention, former militiamen and security officers chant 'Freedom!'. But what Freedom can we talk about after half a century of dictatorship? What does this word actually mean?

Tudor Giurgiu makes copious use, especially in the first part of the film, of the mobile camera, with the cameramen among the characters, in the crowds on the streets or next to the panicked officers in the besieged Militia headquarters. The second half of the film is spent most of the time in the structure of the swimming pool, an excellent visual metaphor of an enprisonment space. As things quiet down, so do the cameras and the cinematic style returns to a classic narrative. The swimming pool gradually empties as the prisoners are released, but the first to leave are those who agree to cooperate. The cast is excellent, the actors live their roles rather than act and the difference between documentary and fiction is almost completely erased. With this film, Tudor Giurgiu returns to the roots of Romanian history of the last 33 years. Without judging the characters and their actions and without taking explicit attitudes, he seems to suggest that the current disorientation of many segments of the Romanian society has its origin in the confusion of those December days. 'Libertate' is an intentionally chaotic film about those days of change that could have happened differently.

I encourage people to watch this movie...however much watching it infuriated me. It is a compelling and, as previous posters (apparently mostly Romanian) have written, it is indeed an "immersive experience," and deserves to be viewed and applauded from an artistic standpoint. But it is unfortunately a deeply regrettable travesty from the point of someone who has spent decades investigating the events of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989. My first, of several, hopefully, episodic, entries, is to demonstrate that despite what Tudor Giurgiu, the director, has said in his many interviews, and what one reviewer, Eugen Istodor, has said... "Vocea securistilor nu s-a auzit 30 si ceva de ani si filmul le da cuvantul." (Hotnews.ro 7 October 2023)..."The voice of the Securitate (communist era secret police) has not been heard for 30 plus years and this film gives them the floor."...there is nothing new in this story...in fact, it has been expressed repeatedly and has long since achieved a hegemony in the Romanian media and everyday life. (Tudor Giurgiu has spoken in public at these showings, I was there for one, about the "fake narratives (about the Army) that have dominated for 30 plus years...and about the supposedly dominant narrative of "the Glorious Army"...but let us test his claims here)...below, for English speakers, two famous public discussions of the Sibiu December 1989 events...from 1990 and 1997, therefore for 33 years and 26 years respectively...to be continued...

POET, ESSAYIST, AND NPR COMMENTATOR ANDREI CODRESCU in Sibiu in July 1990, seven months after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989

As my friends spoke, a strange feeling engulfed me. Most of what they said sounded true, but there seemed to be something missing, one element of the plot that no one cared to mention. Here, in the middle of this sumptuous feast, I experienced the eeriness of another (hardly new) revelation: They were all blaming the army for the shootings; none of them blamed the Securitate. And yet the official government line was that the Securitate-not the army-massacred all those people who were undeniably massacred in Bucharest, Sibiu, and elsewhere. Could my friends also have been ... ? I felt like drawing two fingers across my shoulder (a sign he had earlier related was used to communicate that someone had Securitate ties), but I had no one to do it for. In any case, the point they were making, and which was being corroborated everywhere these days, is that many shots had been fired, but few in defense of Ceausescu, He had been betrayed by everyone. Even his son, who'd been in charge at Sibiu, hadn't ordered anybody to fire at demonstrators. Ironically, the People's Army started shooting at the crowds at the same time that the army was officially coming over to "the side of the people." However, the shooting was intended to create more panic than corpses. Romania's TV revolution had only one side ...Everyone had been on it.

--"Big Chills: My High School Reunion in Romania," HARPER'S MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 1990

and

Back in 1997, the American novelist and Pulitzer Prize Winner William McPherson wrote of what Valentin Ceausescu, communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's eldest son, told him about the events of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989. Here are some excerpts:

Valentin and I were having coffee in the Vox Maris, the same grand casino where the funeral feast was held. It was morning, two days after the funeral (of Nicu Ceausescu), and the crowds had not yet arrived.

--"Nicu was never groomed to be the successor. That was (only) the rumor." He paused for a moment. "But rumors even become the reality."

--"Yes. Especially in Romania."

--"Maybe others in the party thought it would be a good idea. He could command a lot of sympathy. He always wanted to look tough and act strong, but he wasn't. He was more like a child than anything else."

--"What about the 90 people killed in Sibiu?"

--"He did not order the shooting. I know when he's trying to lie, and he wasn't lying. I knew immediately. That's why I defended him so strongly."

--He paused and lit another Pall Mall. "Have you noticed? All the heroes in Sibiu now are the militia and the Securitate - all the dead people, and now they are the heroes of the revolution."

--"So the villains are now the heroes?"

--"Yes."

--And the heroes are now the villains.

The official toll of the dead, revised frequently with a final version released three years after the events, is 1,104; only 160 were killed before the dictator fled.

Curious - if the figures are accurate - that the majority of them were killed in Sibiu. "A lot of effort," Valentin once said, "to kill these two old people."

William McPherson, "A Balkan Comedy," The Wilson Quarterly, Volume 21, Issue 3 (Summer 1997)

Thank you, dear readers and watchers. --Domnul R.

The movie had the right amount of everything, be it violence, humour, community, or politics. The revolution of '89 has many secrets still, but the director and scenographer Tudor Giurgiu did a tremendous job in order to keep the facts palpable. The casting was perfect and every line was fluid, believable, accurate for the time in question. The metaphors used make it not only an action movie, but a psychological one, shaping every character, with flaws and faults. And still, at the end of it you pity and cry along them and start questioning yourself if you would have done things differently. I can only hope it receives the recognition it deserves, because it is a masterpiece.

(I saw it at a pre-screening. The premier is on the 6th of October)

I have just had the privilege of seeing this tonight, at a pre-screening before the actual launch and I can say I was very happy and relieved to see these stories told so well and yet also not be a documentary, in spite of the mountains of research and effort that went into recreating some of the aspects depicted. Probably the best and most mature non-meta Romanian film.

Please go out and support it by seeing it in cinemas, starting October 6th - it's well worth it and it deserves to be seen if you're even remotely interested in Romanian films, history inspired stories - or, indeed, great movies in general!

📽 "Libertate" magnificently directed by Tudor Giurgiu and masterfully written by him together with Cecilia Stefanescu and Nap Toader, is a historical drama inspired by the great mystery behind the events of the dark days of December 1989 in Sibiu, where the fall of the communist regime leads to bloody confrontations between soldiers, policemen, civilian protesters and representatives of the secret police, all resulting in unprecedented chaos. This film really succeeds in transposing the audience in the time-space line, but more importantly in the minds of the protagonists, questioning more than ever the value of moral ethics and the power to keep yourself clean in a dystopia full of corruption.

🎞 A special characteristic of the story is the directorial and acting power to present a blurred overall picture, capable of connecting the narratives of different, doubtful perspectives, thus leading the audience to crucial moments where they even doubt the veracity of the protagonists...captive too in a world ruled by fear and lies. A psychological study of a fractured mindset imposed by the failed ideologies of a flawed system, but also an enchanting story designed to leave the audience with questions and personal analyses, quite recent events leaving us as spectators in the position of questioning our own inner revolution. A film that leaves its mark on the audience for a long time, truly a cinematic masterpiece, the opportunity to reflect and thus better understand the past and implicitly the future!