CIREȘARII (1984) – adventure film online

Directed by: Adrian Petringenaru
Script: Constantin Chiriță
Cast: Ion Marinescu, Petre Gheorghiu-Dolj, Ernest Maftei, Nicolae Dinică, Victorița Dobre-Timonu, Ștefan Velniciuc și copiii: Răzvan Baciu, Alina Croitoru, Alina Dumitrescu, Robert Enescu, Horațiu Medveșan, Alexandru Rotaru, Gabriel Sîrbu, Florin Iordan, Marius Petre
Producer: Romulus Lal (Bucharest Film Production Center)
Cinematography by: Ion Dobre
Edited by: Iulia Vincenz
Sound: Bujor Suru
Music: George Grigoriu
Year: 1984
Category: Feature film
Genre: Adventure, children’s film
Duration: 90 minutes

15,584 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

Seven teenagers set off on a scientific expedition to Peştera Neagră (Black Cave) during their summer vacation. For safety reasons, they divide into two groups — one inside the cave and one outside on the mountain — and communicate using Morse code and two TFF devices.

AWARDS

• 1984 – National Children’s Film Festival, Piatra Neamț – Filmmakers’ Association Award
• 1988 – Children’s Film Festival – Golden Rooster Award for Best Male Actor

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“The beauty of the landscapes captures the audience’s goodwill (although, in his ambitious desire to give them a unified visual relief, the debutant cameraman Ion Dobre reduces the brightness of the colors on the earth’s surface on the one hand, and, on the other hand, illuminates the Black Cave with unnatural intensity) and the charm inscribed on the faces of the young actors. In this regard, the director generally proves to be inspired; the naturalness and ease of the gestures of the teenagers chosen to embody purity and intelligence are partially lost due to the affected theatricality of the dialogues in the post-synchronization studio. On the other hand, the sets built on the set by set designer Cristian Niculescu happily extend (with the exception of the Hunter’s Cave, where various objects are displayed as in a department store window) the real volumes, imperceptibly linking the Iedului Cave, the Sohodol Gorge, and the Woman’s Cave into a fairy-tale universe. “ – Ioana Creangă, România literară magazine no. 2, January 10, 1985

“In the middle of winter, in the middle of the holidays, the Patria hall was filled with Victors, Ionelas, Lucias, Marias, Tics, Bears, and Danises who knew by heart what was about to happen and uttered their lines a second early so that they could be heard in the hall. What more could the authors have wanted? A film for children — sorry, for teenagers — has such a specific target audience that the opinion of mature viewers is completely irrelevant. Adults can only observe the “phenomenon” and try to understand it.” – Eva Sîrbu magazine, Cinema no. 1, January 1985

“Sometimes movies that put their genre first tend to stifle any discussion about themselves. Don’t you get the rules of the universe? It’s just sci-fi. Don’t you get why she’d be into him? It’s a rom-com. In this case, the genre is children’s film, and the two critics (Ioana Creangă and Eva Sîrbu), whose reviews of the film can be found on the AaRC website, face the same dilemma. X, Y, and Z don’t work, but yes, it’s a children’s film, and children loved it.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“The Bear, the brave one of the team, a good athlete (his actor excelled in stunts and climbing, refusing to be doubled. For one scene, he even took boxing lessons in secret to surprise me during filming); a dreamy, gentle girl, a kind of older sister to the boys, who also took care of her teammates in real life, feeding them, sewing for them when necessary, scolding them; a second girl, well-behaved, wise, who was also a good student and a member of The Union of Communist Youth movement in real life; the leader of the expedition, the clear-headed one, for whom we chose a boy with a friendly, cute, helpful appearance, but who gave us a hard time, as he was actually frisky and capricious. Tic, the little kid who was stupid, as they say, but who was actually intelligent and made fun and laughed so hard he couldn’t stop at his own role. Working with children means, first and foremost, patience, patience, and more patience.” – Andrei Blaier, about his own film adaptation of “Cireșarii” in the magazine “Cinema”, 1973 (adevarul.ro)

TRIVIA:

• The film is an adaptation of the first volume in the “Cireșarii” series by Constantin Chiriţă. The first adaptation of the books was the television series of the same name, directed by Andrei Blaier in 1972.
• The same Adrian Petringenaru directed, in 1985, the film “Aripi de zăpadă”, the film adaptation of the fourth volume in the “Cireşarii” series, and “Cetatea ascunsă” (1987).
• Constantin Chiriţă, author of the “Cireșarii” books, was born on March 12, 1925, in the village of Ibăneşti, Vaslui County. “Cireșarii” was born during one of the most difficult moments in the author’s life. He was married to Gertrud Kräuter, whose family suffered during the communist period – his father, Dr. Franz Kräuter, a deputy from Timiș, along with other members of the family, were sentenced to hard labor following the Stalinist trial against the Catholic Church in 1951 – he, in turn, had to endure the torments of a dictatorial regime. At that time, he was writing for Scânteia, where he had been employed as an editor and reporter since the age of 19, in the difficult year of 1944. When those in power found out that his wife was the daughter of “class enemies”, he was fired from his job, but he survived: he wrote and others signed. Then he decided to write a book so beautiful that no publisher could refuse it. That is how Cutezătorii (The Daring Ones) was born.
• Alex Rotaru played the role of Dan, and the experience shaped his destiny. He studied physics for two years, then left for the US on a scholarship to MIT. He specialized in laser and quantum theory, but returned to film, studying at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. He has directed three feature-length documentaries so far, the latest of which had Kevin Spacey as executive producer. He is currently preparing his first feature-length fiction film. He says he has found his place in Hollywood, the place that also welcomed one of his favorite filmmakers, Billy Wilder. (Iulia Blaga, agenda.liternet.ro)
• About his encounter with “Cireșarii”, Alex Rotaru recounts for jurnalul.ro: “I was 9 or 10 years old when I first encountered the story of “Cireșarii”. At the time, I was reading Jules Verne in the countryside, at my grandmother’s house — the ‘countryside’ being Bolintin Vale, in Ilfov — and I discovered Constantin Chiriţă’s series of novels by chance. I immediately put down Verne and was completely captivated by Chiriţă, both by his stories and characters, in which I could dream of finding myself, and by his poetic style, which I did not fully understand at the time, but which disturbed and impressed me. I remember sometimes reading the end of a chapter under the covers, by flashlight, after my grandmother had ordered the lights to be turned off. To this day, opening any volume of “Cireșarii” stirs me deeply.”
• In the same interview, the actor recounts how he and the other child actors would get up to all sorts of mischief during filming, and director Adrian Petringenaru would do his best to keep an eye on them. “He was, God rest his soul, a man who was as loving as he was authoritarian. He commanded respect through his appearance, his words, his gestures. (…) When we disappointed him, we wanted to sink into the ground with shame; he didn’t have to scold us. That’s pretty much how I felt about Ilarion Ciobanu, with whom I was lucky enough to film my last movie.” (A.R.)
• His mother is actress Maria Rotaru, and his father is playwright and lyricist Eugen Rotaru, neither of whom wanted their son to have any connection with show business.
• The film was made with the support of the party and state authorities of Gorj County and the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology.
• The outdoor scenes were shot in the natural setting of the caves: Iedului, Women, Polovragi, and in the Sohodol Gorge in Gorj County.
• The film was seen by 1,417,750 viewers in Romanian cinemas, according to a report on the number of viewers recorded for Romanian films from the date of release until December 31, 2014, compiled by the National Center for Cinematography.

LINES:

 • “It’s more than an adventure. It’s a dream. The great dream of the cherry pickers is coming true!” -Maria (Alina Dumitrescu)
• “Victor is calling us. He found the old map of the cave at the museum and copied it.” – Ursu (Gabriel Sîrbu)
• “A.M. – ante meridiem. Meaning before noon. Morning. Just as P.M. means post meridiem, meaning afternoon.” – Eng. Florescu, Maria and Tic’s father (Nicolae Dinică)
• “I’m not little anymore! I’ve grown 2 cm since I first asked you to let me go!” – Tic (Răzvan Baciu)
• “You obnoxious quadruped! I said 4 a.m.! And you woke me up at 6!” – Tic (Răzvan Baciu)
• “First we’ll die of hunger, and then we’ll die of fear. We’ll die twice!” – Tic (Răzvan Baciu)
• “How do you feel when your belly is full? I believe you, wag your tail!” – Tic (Răzvan Baciu)
• “We’ll divide into groups. Three stay outside and three go into the cave.” – Ursu (Gabriel Sîrbu)
• “I see you. And you’re ugly. And you stick out your tongue.” – Maria (Alina Dumitrescu)
• “I have a weapon, just find the magic word.” – Tic (Răzvan Baciu)

ARTICLES:

• “Cireșarii” film review (by Eva Sîrbu) – aarc.ro
• “Cireșarii” today (by Ioana Creangă) – aarc.ro
• How I became a “cireșar” – jurnalul.ro
• Romanian theater and films: “Cireșarii” (1972, 1984) – agerpres.ro
• Alex Rotaru: a “cireșar” in Hollywood – jurnalul.ro
• What happened to the actors from “Cireșarii”? 40 years without news from Tic, Victor, Maria, and The Bear – newsweek.ro
• “Cireșarii”, on the centenary of the author’s birth – radioromaniacultural.ro
• The story of Constantin Chiriță, the writer who turned the pioneers of communist Romania into cherry pickers: “Humanity must dream beautifully” – adevarul.ro
• Alex Rotaru, from his role in “Cireșarii” to quantum physics and a career as a filmmaker in Hollywood – agenda.liternet.ro
• Alex Rotaru, from his role in “Cireșarii” to quantum physics and his career as a filmmaker in Hollywood: “Yes, I was lucky to find my way to America, but once I got there, I had to work really hard” – hotnews.ro
• Alex Rotaru, the only Romanian director in Hollywood: “In the 1990s, I was asked if I knew Nadia, Hagi, or Năstase personally, and even if I was Dracula’s great-grandson” – ampress.ro
• Alex Rotaru, a Romanian “star” in Hollywood. – arhiva.formula-as.ro

This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.

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