Synopsis
As Andrei Blaier himself shares, the film is, among other things, a faithful screenization of The Decalogue; an ode to unseen humanity behind the wall of toughness in a hard-tried social system.
The supreme charlatan befriends the good, warm-hearted young man, absorbing him completely and, at the same time, following him, as if he is just learning to take his first steps; but he never confesses. He “knows” all about the world. He talks as if he invented it. In fact, he knows nothing.
“Through the Ashes of the Empire” is a story of knowing the good at a critical moment, when there seems to be no hope.
Directed by: Andrei Blaier
Script: Andrei Blaier, Zaharia Stancu (film inspired by his novel „A Gamble with Death”, 1962)
Cast: Gheorghe Dinică, Gabriel Oseciuc, Cornel Coman, Ștefan Sileanu, Ferenc Bencze, Ernest Maftei, Jean Reder, Constantin Rautchi, Theodor Pica, Nucu Păunescu, Petre Gheorghiu-Goe, Petruț Traian, Ion Porsilă, Anton Aftenie, Mircea Jida, Karoly Sinka, Marion Spiridon, Constantin Florescu, Irina Petrescu, Florina Cercel, Elena Albu, Boris Ciornei, Corneliu Gîrbea, Mircea Basta, Andrei Codrarcea
Producers: Casa de Filme 3
Cinematography by: Dinu Tănase
Edited by: Magdalena Chise
Sound: Bogdan Cavadia, Jerzy Droszckzak
Music: Radu Șerban
Year: 1976
Category: Feature film
Genre: Drama, war movie, historic movie, road movie
Duration: 101 minutes
188,805 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
In mid-1917, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was on the brink of dissolution and the nations that had constituted it for centuries were rising up, demanding the right to self-determination. The fighting at the front, the deaths, the trenches, the casualties, the poverty, the insecurity, all paint a bleak and dehumanizing picture. It is against this backdrop that the main characters emerge – two fundamentally different beings with a common destiny: Darie (Gabriel Oseciuc), a young man with no life experience, a lame and naive boy, and a strange and cynical grown man, nicknamed The Diplomat (excellently played by Gheorghe Dinică), the kind of con man who has lived an seen a lot, versatile, treacherous, but proud, with pretensions of nobility.
Captured in a raid in German-occupied Bucharest, the two are thrown into a group of opressed men like themselves and taken to the front to dig trenches. At one point, they manage to escape from the convoy. Wandering through a war-torn Balkan peninsula, their journey is full of exciting, life-challenging events. Good Darie and the cynical and resourceful Diplomat are forced to survive together, as the world around them undergoes a dynamic process of geopolitical and social change.
Together they experience, almost phantasmagorically, the game of death through the ashes of the dying Austro-Hungarian ’empire’, in a world where their life was worth nothing. The diplomat ends up being arrested by the authorities, while Darie, now grown up and at the end of his initiation, chooses to fight against death, human dissolution and war.
CRITICAL REVIEWS:
“Captured in a raid in Bucharest under German occupation, the angelic Darie and the cynical Diplomat live together the experience of the game with death during the First World War” – Tudor Caranfil in the volume “Dictionary of Romanian Films” (2003).
“Darie (played by Gabriel Oseciuc) is a young man with no life experience, a lame and naive boy; The Diplomat (played by Gheorghe Dinică) is a strange and cynical grown-up man, a con man who has been through all the trials of life, versatile, treacherous, but proud and with pretensions of nobility” – cinemagia.ro
“The film inaugurates Blaier’s phase of recourse to history, the second important stage of his directorial creation after a period in which the director made films on subjects of recent current events. – Călin Căliman, in “Istoria filmului românesc (1897-2000), ed. Romanian Cultural Foundation
“An original and thrilling road movie, set in 1917, on the path of a crumbling empire” – Călin Căliman, in “The History of Romanian Film” (1897-2000), ed. Romanian Cultural Foundation
AWARDS
- 1976 – ACIN – Grand Prize (Andrei Blaier)
- 1976 – ACIN – Music Award (Radu Șerban)
- 1976 – Karlovy Vary Festival – Best Actor Award (Gheorghe Dinică)
- 1977 – Cannes International Youth Film Festival – Special Mention
- 1978 – Avelino Neo-Realist and Avant-garde Film Festival – Honorary Diploma for historical evocation
TRIVIA
- Andrei Blaier said about Zaharia Stancu’s novel: “In ”The Game with Death” I simply saw the Decalogue. There was all the evil and all the good in this book and I was determined to do it no matter what”.
- They filmed in 40 locations, which made all the work harder for the cast and crew.
- They had to reconstruct a 1917 train from wagons collected from around the country.
- “It was a wonderful ordeal” said Andrei Blaier.
- Gheorghe Dinică had to stand with his mouth open and his smile grinning for an hour to allow the black and green paint to dry on his teeth.
- At the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Russians left the theater at the movie screening.
- Andrei Blaier gave Gheorghe Dinică complete freedom to build his character.
- Andrei Blaier felt that the role suited Dinică perfectly. He said: “His bad luck is that he was born in Romania. If he had made a movie abroad, Dinică would have been as good as De Niro or Al Pacino”. Blaier would have cast him in the never-made movie „Zahei the Blind” in four different roles.
LINES
“Life is a game with death, my boy.” – The Diplomat (Gheorghe Dinică)
“Work if you want to see foreign countries. Nothing is for free in this world.” – The Diplomat (Gheorghe Dinică)
“I’ve never worked; I was born in a silk cradle.” – The Diplomat (Gheorghe Dinică)
“War brings death and maim to some. To others, fortune. That’s the way it’s always been.” – Spelbul (Cornel Coman)
You have no one because you have nothing in your heart. – Young Darie – The Lame (Gabriel Oseciuc)
Don’t pity the dead. Have pity on the living. – The Diplomat (Gheorghe Dinică)
ARTICLES
- Through the Ashes of Empire (Andrei Blaier, 1976) – blogdefilm.ro
- Through the Ashes of Empire – istoriafilmului.ro
- Theatre and romanian films: “Through the Ashes of Empire” (1976) – agerpres.ro
- Tragedy in cinema: Andrei Blaier has died. See what filmmakers have to say about the great director – romanialibera.ro
- Andrei Blaier – Illustrated with immortal flowers – cinemagia.ro
- Irina Petrescu, anti-“Lady of Romanian theater” – cinemagia.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.
