AUGUST 23 1944 / 2019 – documentary film online

Directed by: Andra Tarara, David Schwartz, Roland Ibold
Cast: Iudith Ardeleanu, Ioseph Cotnăreanu, Lippa Baroti Segal, Pompiliu Sterian
Script by: Andra Tarara, David Schwartz, Roland Ibold
Sound: Mara Mărăcinescu
Music: Teodora Retegan
Year: 2019
Category: Feature film
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 80 minutes

6,040 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

On August 23, 1944, Marshal Ion Antonescu and Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu were arrested, Romania left its alliance with Nazi Germany and turned its weapons against it, continuing the war on the side of the British-Soviet-American coalition. This event marked the end of the fascist regime in Romania.

The film captures the divisions within the Jewish community and Romanian society as a whole, highlighting the importance and relevance of the events of 1944.

FESTIVALS

• 2019 – Educational screenings in Bucharest, Sibiu, Zalău, Cluj Napoca, Șimleu Silvaniei, Iași, Bârlad (2019)
• 2020 – Official selection at AstraFF, Sibiu

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“An excellent idea for an evocative documentary: what was the happiest day of your life? Asked to venerable pensioners at the Amalia and Chief Rabbi Dr. Moses Rosen Center for the elderly, belonging to the Jewish community in Bucharest, this question, with its powerful historical and emotional resonance, elicited a response shared by the vast majority: August 23, 1944. Why? How was it? How did you feel? What did you do then… that remains truly unforgettable?” – Bogdan Burileanu, agenda.liternet.ro

“Faced with the youthful reaction and keen interest in historical circumstances, in how they experienced that reversal of fortune firsthand, the interviewees displayed not only considerable lucidity and vitality, but also a polemical spirit that was difficult to anticipate in such a homogeneous group. But, as always, the details, additions, and controversies were the ferment of an unusual sharpness of mind.” – Bogdan Burileanu, agenda.liternet.ro

“Well… Why August 23? Because it came as a deliverance for all the Jews in Romania who had lived in the terror of war: bombings, persecution, daily uncertainties, rumors, each more frightening than the last… The wave of Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism seemed to be advancing in the context of good Romanian-German relations.” – Bogdan Burileanu, agenda.liternet.ro

TRIVIA:

• The photographs and drawings are taken from the Vârsta4 project archive.
• The film that the residents of the nursing home are watching is part of TVR’s Image Archive and is entitled “The National Anti-Fascist Uprising of August 1944.”
• The event is part of the project “75 years since August 23, 1944 – marginal perspectives,” co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration.
• The project partners were the “Amalia and Chief Rabbi Dr. Moses Rosen” Home, the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, U.N.A.T.C. “I.L. Caragiale,” S.N.S.P.A. Bucharest, Babeș Bolyai University – F.S.A.S., George Enescu University of Arts, Faculty of Letters and Arts – Lucian Blaga University, Zalău County Museum of History and Art, Memorial Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania, Romanian Association for Social History, Constantin Hamangiu Association.
• The project lasted for 8 months.

LINES:

• “In the evening, it was announced that Antonescu had been arrested and that we were turning our weapons against Germany. (…) For us, after so much suffering, it was our salvation.” – Pompiliu Sterian
• “We were overjoyed, of course. Absolutely overjoyed.” – Iudith Ardelean
• “The joy was great. The joy was great not only among the Jews, but also among the local population, some of whom were happy that the war was over, that the suffering was over.” – Lippa Baroti Segal “For me, August 23 is Liberation Day. It’s the day I came to life.” – Ioseph Cotănescu
• “We crossed the whole of Bucharest on a tank! Who was happier than us?” – Iudith Ardeleanu
• “What were these illegalists doing? They were walking down the street, holding demonstrations. ‘We want communism, we want communism!'” – Iudith Ardeleanu
• “Everyone suffered. Jews, Christians, everyone suffered.” – Iudith Ardeleanu”In the words of Ilia Ehrenburg: until the last anti-Semite disappears from this world, I will remain a Jew.” – Lippa Baroti Segal
• “Anti-Semitism has existed since Adam and Eve.” – Pompiliu Sterian

ARTICLES:

• August 23, 1944/2019 – astrafilm.ro
• Memories and Quarrels – August 23, 1944/2019 at the Astra Film Festival, 2020 (Bogdan Burileanu, Memories and Quarrels – August 23, 1944/2019 at the Astra Film Festival, 2020) – agenda.liternet.ro
• August 23, 1944/2019 – holocaustmuseum.ro
• Film screening “August 23, 1944/2019” at Cineclub Film Menu – agentiadecarte.ro
• DOCUMENTARY: 70 years since the Act of August 23, 1944 – agerpres.ro

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