ION – THE LUST FOR THE LAND (1980) – drama film online

Directed by: Mircea Mureșan
Script: Titus Popovici, Liviu Rebreanu (novel)
Cast: Șerban Ionescu, Ioana Crăciunescu, Sorina Stănculescu, Valentin Teodosiu, Petre Gheorghiu, Ion Besoiu, Octavian Cotescu, Tamara Buciuceanu, Catrinel Dumitrescu, Rodica Negrea, Romeo Pop, Leopoldina Bălănuță, Ion Hidisan, Valeria Seciu, Costel Constrantin, Petre Lupu, Ferenc Fabian
Producer: Dumitru Tofan
Cinematography by: Ion Marinescu
Edited by: Elena Pantazică
Sound: Nicolae Ciolcă
Music: Gheorghe Zamfir
Year: 1980
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama
Duration: 107 minutes

230,497 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

Ion, a poor peasant from the village of Pripas, wants to join the ranks of the rich. His plan is to force Vasile Baciu, one of the village’s wealthy men, to give him his daughter Ana’s hand in marriage, and especially her dowry, the land that belongs to her. Ana becomes pregnant. At the same time, Ion is in love with Florica, a beautiful but poor girl.

Ion wants both Ana’s dowry and Florica’s love. In the end, Ion marries Ana, who, despised by everyone, commits suicide, and Florica marries a rich young man, Gheorghe Buluc, whom she does not love. One night, Ion tries to sneak into her bed, but is killed by Gheorghe.

AWARDS

• 1980 – ACIN – Special Jury Prize (Mircea Mureşan, Titus Popovici)
• 1980 – ACIN – Award for Cinematography (Ion Marinescu)
• 1980 – ACIN – Award for Best Actress (Ioana Crăciunescu)
• 1980 – ACIN – Honorary Diploma for Acting (Şerban Ionescu)

FESTIVALS

• 1981 – New Delhi International Film Festival

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“The characters’ trajectories intertwine and merge into a fresco crafted with a sense of proportion, with accents that are either attenuated or highlighted with remarkable fluency.” – Valerian Sava, Cinema magazine, April 4, 1980

“Titus Popovici and Mircea Mureşan have discovered in the novel Ion, beyond its realistic style and psychological substance, structures and resonances of popular epic, pouring the material into a form that borrows and distills harmoniously, ennobling them, the means of overproduction and television series.” – Valerian Sava, Cinema magazine, April 4, 1980

“(The film) lucidly aspires to fresco-like dimensions. Director Mircea Mureșan attempts to integrate into a structure both the austere pathos (demonstrated in “The Uprising”) and the balladic tone (adopted in ‘The Hatchet’), as well as the notations that bring together atmospheric and portraitistic suggestions.” – Ioana Creangă, România Literară no. 16, April 17, 1980

“Fighting fiercely for Baciu’s daughter Ana’s dowry, the poor Ion is, in fact, in love with Florica.” – Tudor Caranfil, “Universal Dictionary of Films”, 2008

“Faithful to the spirit of Rebreanu’s novel, the film is the creation of a skilled craftsman who knows how to effectively stage the important moments of the plot, such as the confrontation at the dance or Ion’s seduction of Ana, but also how to give the film a sustained rhythm and maintain tension in the seemingly calm sequences. The scene at the mill, for example, in which Vasile realizes that Ana is pregnant not by Gheorghe, as he had believed, but by Ion, is anthological, and the noise of the machinery, which becomes dominant on the soundtrack, resonates with the turmoil of the disillusioned father.” – Mihai Fulger, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• The film is made up of two independent series: “The Lust for the Land” and “The Lust for Love”.
• In 1980, a five-episode TV series called “Ion” was made by re-editing the filmed material and adding some new scenes.
• In 1984, a short version of the film (in 11 acts) was made for broadcast in America. About the process leading up to the making of the film, director Mircea Mureșan told the publication Weekend Adevărul: “Rebeanu’s novel Ion had been obsessing me for some time. Ever since I was making The Uprising, if not earlier, back in my school days when my ideals and illusions led me to believe that I would be the one to bring Rebreanu’s work to the screen in its entirety. The editors-in-chief had changed. Vasile Nicolescu – Bazil said to me, after I presented the project: ‘Mircea, dear, are you coming now with the peasant’s thirst for land? Now, collectivization, with the grand plan for a multilaterally developed society?!” I tried one last card, with a more enlightened mind from the Central Committee, Cornel Burtică. We talked about this and that, until he asked me, “What are you working on now?” Well, I told him, for a few years now I’ve wanted to do “Ion”… “And why don’t you do it?!” was his reply, to my enlightenment. I replied that I would do it, but that the Council for Culture and Socialist Education didn’t want to include it in the plan. “Tell them I included it”. And so it was! Bazil greeted me at the editorial office: “The project is included in the plan. You know, Mircea, I didn’t include it out of obedience, I believe in such a work…” I also told Titus Popovici, who had been hesitant to start writing the script.”
• At the time, the conflict between the film’s screenwriter, Titus Popovici (a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party), and Ilie Rădulescu (secretary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party) was well known. through the Council for Culture and Socialist Education, was delaying the film’s release because the screenwriter and director did not want to accept the changes demanded by the Ideological Commission, such as the removal of church figures from the film.
• “Ion” went into production on April 5, 1978, and filming, which took place mainly in the village of Fântânele in Sibiu County, was completed on February 9, 1979.
• Production costs totaled 8,279,000 lei.
• The premiere took place at the Patria cinema on April 14, 1980, and the film was seen by 3,469,709 viewers in Romanian cinemas.
• Although it had been entered in the preselection for the Cannes International Film Festival, the film was unable to reach the Croisette due to the well-known problems. However, it was shown on a tour in Moscow, Tallinn, and Saint Petersburg, as well as in faraway and exotic India.

LINES:

• “Who is this to give me orders… Glanetaș’s son!” – Gheorghe (Valentin Teodosiu)
• “Ion is fighting with Gheorghe!” – Villagers
• “We work, what else can we do? That’s why God left us on this bend in the Earth.” – Ion (Șerban Ionescu)
• “You, you fool, do you think they’re after you? Or after the wealth we worked so hard for?” – Vasile Baciu (Petrică Gheorghiu)
• “I’d rather cut you into pieces than let you become the laughing stock of the Glanetaș family.” – Vasile Baciu (Petrică Gheorghiu)
• “We had five (children), but God left us only these three.” – Maria Herdelea (Tamara Buciuceanu)
• “Teacher, don’t give up on me. You know so much.” – Ion (Șerban Ionescu)
• “Tell me that you love me.” – Ana (Ioana Crăciunescu)
• “Whenever you need advice or support, the house of God is open to you.” – Priest Belciug (Ion Besoiu)
• “Let them beat her, it’s what she deserves.” – Ion (Șerban Ionescu)

ARTICLES:

• Ion: The Lust of Love, The Lust for the Land – tvr.ro
• The film “Ion” in exotic India: Praised by Indira Gandhi, dismissed by a review that saw it as “one of those films with violent sex that we are tired of…” – adevarul.ro
• “The Lust for the Land, the Lust for Love” – aarc.ro
• “Ion. The Lust for the Land, the Lust for Love”: Event of the moment – film review – aarc.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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