Chuck Norris and Communism

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Movie
German title Chuck Norris and Communism
Original title Chuck Norris vs. Communism
Country of production Romania , UK
original language Romanian
Publishing year 2015
length 83 minutes
Rod
Director Ilinca Calugareanu
script Ilinca Calugareanu
production Brett Ratner
music Rob Manning
camera Jose Ruiz
cut Ilinca Calugareanu
occupation
  • Ana Maria Moldovan: Irina Nistor
  • Dan Chiorean: Teodor Zamfir

Chuck Norris and Communism is a documentary by London-based Romanian director Ilinca Calugareanu . He treats a marginal chapter in the history of Romania just before the Romanian Revolution : Through smuggling of VHS - video cassettes and their synchronization made Western films accessible to the Romanian people.

content

Irina Nistor

Romania, mid-1980s: Romania practiced a real socialist system with Nicolae Ceaușescu as president. The Romanian government tried to isolate the people from the West as much as possible, which also extended to the state-controlled media. American films were an opportunity for people to participate in life outside their country, but were not accessible to them due to state media censorship.

At that time, Irina Nistor was working as a translator for the state television TVR . One day she was approached by a colleague who offered her a lucrative but illegal sideline: a businessman named Teodor Zamfir was looking for a spokeswoman to dub American films for the Romanian market. Zamfir smuggled VHS cassettes with US films across the Hungarian-Romanian border, had them dubbed using the overdubbing process, duplicated the cassettes and sold the copies on the black market. For the synchronization, he had set up a recording studio in the basement of his house with the simplest means, in which Irina Nistor recorded all roles in real time, i.e. without preparation, including the male ones. By 1989 she dubbed over 3000 films according to her own memory. She brought her own note into her work by independently softening suggestive dialogues and harsh curses. Zamfir's business was successful; Gradually, he expanded his equipment pool and in the end operated 300 video recorders for duplication. He kept the ubiquitous Securitate secret service at bay by bribery. With the fall of the Ceaușescu regime in 1989, Western media was freely accessible and Zamfir's business quickly collapsed.

In addition to the off-screen action, the film shows interviews with contemporary witnesses, usually buyers of the video cassettes, who report on their everyday dealings with censorship, their dreams and the effect the films and Nistor's work have on them. Among the contemporary witnesses are the director Adrian Sitaru and the actor Constantin Fugasin .

History of origin

Chuck Norris and Communism is the directorial debut of Ilinca Calugareanu. She initially conceived the documentation as a mere collection of conversations with contemporary witnesses, but subsequently decided to include scenes in which Nistor and Zamfir are embodied by actors. The financing of the film dragged on for two and a half years. In 2013, co-producer Mara Adina, the sister of director Calugareanu, tried to raise 25,000 US dollars on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to finance the film, but only achieved an amount of over 5500 dollars. Funding was ultimately provided by the British non-profit platform OpenVizor , HBO Europe and WDR .

In 2015 Chuck Norris and Communism was screened at the Sundance Film Festival , Seattle International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival .

reception

In the online magazine Filmstarts , Michael Meyns criticizes the fact that director Calugareanu pursues an untenable thesis regarding the implied connection between video piracy and the fall of the Romanian government in 1989. He also criticizes unreliable witnesses and the large number of re-enacted scenes. Scott Foundas described the film in Variety magazine as an "extended declaration of love for Irina Nistor" and as a "very entertaining candy". John DeFore stated in the journal The Hollywood Reporter that the film was well crafted and that its publicity is actually limited by the focus on Romania, but that it has a generally understandable story that is well told and therefore would definitely have a chance on the market. Barbara Schweizerhof found in the epd film that Chuck Norris and communism were exciting and "wonderfully vivid", but criticized the fact that Zamfir's role and environment were insufficiently illuminated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Variety.com: Film Review: Chuck Norris vs. Communism. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Indiewire.com: Sundance Women Directors: Meet Ilinca Calugareanu - Chuck Norris vs Communism. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Campaign on Indiegogo. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  4. ^ Filmstarts.de: Chuck Norris and Communism. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Hollywoodreporter.com: Chuck Norris vs. Communism: Sundance Review. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .
  6. ↑ EPD-Film.de: criticism of Chuck Norris and communism. Retrieved February 21, 2016 .