NO TRESPASSING (1975) – war film online

Directed by: Doru Năstase
Script: Titus Popovici
Cast: Silviu Stănculescu, Vlad Rădescu, Ana Széles, Vladimir Găitan, George Motoi, Mihai Mereuță, Victor Mavrodineanu, Eugenia Bosînceanu, Cornel Coman, Sorin Lepa, Ștefan Velniciuc, Ovidiu Moldovan, Ilarion Ciobanu, Dinu Ianculescu, Ferenc Fabian, Constantin Dinulescu, Emil Liptac
Producer: Lucian Gologan, Lidia Popița
Cinematography by: Aurel Kostrakiewicz
Edited by: Cristina Ionescu
Sound: Anușavan Salamanian
Music: Tiberiu Olah
Year: 1975
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama, War
Duration: 152 minutes

63,296 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

Students at the military school for officers must defend the country’s border from the Nazis. The film recounts the heroic deeds of Romanians against a numerically superior enemy and their preparation for battle.

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“Doru Năstase — through his temperament and previous experience as an assistant director — is more attracted to the narrative-spectacular side of film, to the action itself, than to the analysis of its intimate mechanisms. But the playwright and filmmaker’s preferences are generally balanced, there is a healthy balance between the scale of the collective historical act and its individual justifications, between the general and the particular, as aestheticians would say.” – Alice Mănoiu, Cinema magazine no. 4, April 1975

“Fruitful communication between the playwright and the director is evident in several sequences that reveal collective psychology, such as the village’s initial (passive) reaction to the young communist’s calls to action, and then the solidarity of the same village when it finally understands that it must help its liberators (hiding weapons in haystacks, lunch after the first battle, etc.). The director collaborates very closely with the actors, carefully following the increasingly warm, caring relationships established between the officers and the students who are receiving their baptism of fire.” – Alice Mănoiu, Cinema magazine no. 4, April 1975

“Cinematographer Aurel Kostrakievici closely follows the director’s intentions, with remarkable results in the large-scale battle scenes, perhaps less so in some of the film’s portraits. Last but not least, the composer of the musical score, Tiberiu Olah, a creator with such an original personality, but intelligently subordinate to the requirements and particularities of the film. A mature film through the clarity of its generous ideas, profound patriotism, and great educational power through the cinematic quality of the emotion it conveys.” – Alice Mănoiu, Cinema magazine no. 4, April 1975

“Titus is one of the most significant figures, ever since his literary beginnings, marked by two great flames: politics and revolution. It was never necessary to explain to him the importance of social issues in art, of left-wing, Marxist, anti-fascist, anti-totalitarian intellectual choices, of the great responsibilities of communism.” – Radu Cosaşu, Cinema magazine, no. 9/1973, pp. 24-25

“The consequences of the events of August 23 are discussed directly, head-on, and comprehensively. I said comprehensively. Here we have a sudden transition to war against the Germans. Here we have descriptions of fierce battles, worthy of Cecil B. DeMille. Here we have soul-searching conversations: young people who completely change their outlook on life. We have career military men who begin to think like socialists: finally, we have here an original case of volunteerism.” – Dumitru I. Suchianu, “România literară” magazine, no. 19, 1975

“The thousands of young people (2,500) were not stuntmen. Or rather, they were, in the sense that their enthusiasm was so great that they instinctively and acrobatically navigated dangers, falls, fires, and projectiles (yes, projectiles, despite the special effects). Those people believed.” – Dumitru I. Suchianu, “România literară” magazine, no. 19, 1975

“A film richer in adventure than the wildest westerns; a film richer in psychological events than the most Ibsenian dramas.” – Dumitru I. Suchianu, “România literară” magazine, no. 19, 1975

“If Doru Năstase was ultimately a second-rate director, the screenplay belonged to the essential filmmaker of the communist film industry. Titus Popovici had written the screenplays for some of the most important Romanian films, and his political commitment was beyond doubt.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

“The narrative structure predictably focuses on the actual confrontation between the two sides, presented in a rather Manichean manner. The Romanian side is made up of pure and idealistic young people driven by a strong sense of patriotic duty. (…) On the other side is a rather indistinct mass of Hitlerite soldiers who, when interacting with the Romanians, lay down their arms far too easily, leaving a feeling of total disillusionment.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

“The film cinematographically encapsulates the main ideological paradox that constitutes the cornerstone of the specificity of the Ceaușescu regime, namely the recovery of the nationalist past in the socialist present.” – Bogdan Jitea, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• Although he had worked for a considerable period as an assistant director, directing, for example, “Michael the Brave” (1971) and “Ciprian Porumbescu” (1973) alongside Sergiu Nicolaescu, Doru Năstase (40) was a novice in feature film directing at the time of the film’s production.
• Actor Ion Besoiu dubbed the voice of the German military advisor, the SS advisor.
• Filming took place between August 1, 1974, and January 13, 1975, in Arad, Lipova, Sibiu, and Buftea. Production costs amounted to 8,096,000 lei.
• The film was seen by 5,229,068 viewers in Romanian cinemas, according to a report on the number of viewers recorded by Romanian films from the date of release until December 31, 2014, compiled by the National Center for Cinematography.
• In 1973, director Doru Năstase graduated from the Theater Directing Department of the “I.L. Caragiale” Institute of Theater and Cinematographic Art in Bucharest and began his film career at the Bucharest Studio, initially as an assistant director and later as a production manager.
• From director Doru Năstase’s filmography, you can also watch on CINEPUB: “Vlad Țepeș” (1979), “Road of Bones” (1980) and “The Yellow Rose” (1982).

LINES:

• “Some roll around in the mud, others sing. The new order!” – Sică (Ovidiu Moldovan)
• “What, don’t you know? What is there that can separate two friends?” – Sică (Ovidiu Moldovan)
• “Tomorrow we’re doing chores. We’re cleaning the toilets, washing the pebbles, sweeping the courtyard. Because if there’s a ball in the village, there should be one here too!” – Sergeant Toma (Mihai Mereuță)
• “You see, Colonel. The normal thing would have been for you to say, ‘I order you to be honest’. And I would have replied, ‘I report that I will be honest.'” – Andrei Petrescu (Vlad Rădescu)
• “You say Mărășești, Oituz. I say, on behalf of my father, Bach. Beethoven.” – Andrei Petrescu (Vlad Rădescu)
• “I’m curious to see how you’ll sing after you kill your first man.” – Col. Maxineanu (Silviu Stănculescu)
• “If he didn’t want to listen to his father’s words, then let him stay in prison.” – Ilarie (Ilarion Ciobanu)
• “If there is peace, is there no law?” – Ilarie (Ilarion Ciobanu)
• “Let’s have a drink instead.” – Ilarie (Ilarion Ciobanu)
• “Don’t you want me to dig your grave?” – Andrei Petrescu (Vlad Rădescu)

ARTICLES:

• “No Trespassing” – film review (by Alice Mănoiu) – aarc.ro
• Doru Năstase – istoriafilmuluiromanesc.ro
• “No Trespassing” – Movie Poster – mauvais-genres.com

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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