The Reenactment

Both Horia Pătraşcu's novel and the screenplay (co-authored by Pătraşcu and Pintilie) are closely based on real-life events. The incident was witnessed by Pătraşcu during the early 1960s, and took place in his native town of Caransebeş, shortly before a celebration of August 23 (Communist Romania's national holiday, commemorating the 1944 coup). The militiamen involved had detained two youths with no prior criminal record, accusing them of having been drunk and disorderly, and had decided to make them reenact the scene in order to educate the public about the perils of alcohol. In a 1999 interview, Pătrașcu acknowledges that, as a university student and part-time activist at a local culture house, he was a member of the original crew. There was a significant gap between the story's publishing and the start of production. Filmmaker Mircea Săucan recalls repeatedly urging Pătraşcu to turn his text into a screenplay. Before Pintilie took up the project, Horia Pătrașcu says, he was approached by two other directors. The first was Radu Gabrea, who abandoned it once he decided to resettle in West Germany; the second was Liviu Ciulei, who disagreed with the writer over the plot's tragic outcome, and eventually ended talks. Poet and actor Emil Botta was fifty-seven at the time, while George Constantin was thirty-five and Ernest Maftei forty-eight. Despite the marked age difference, Mihăiță remembers, that the communication on the set was smooth and the atmosphere playful. The film was shot on location in the Southern Carpathian resort of Sinaia, but preserves some elements from the intended setting, including the restaurant's name Pescăruș ("Seagull"), which had been borrowed from its Caransebeș model. ==Themes==

In addition to its factual content, The Reenactment stands as a metaphor for the people's inability to control their own destinies under the grip of a totalitarian regime, and, through its cultural implications, is also seen as a retrospective condemnation of Socialist realism and its didacticism (see Socialist realism in Romania). In 2004, Lucian Pintilie wrote that his decision to shoot the film was also motivated by his disgust in respect to the invasive practices of communist authorities, having previously been informed that one of his friends, a closeted gay actor, was denounced for breaking Romania's sodomy law, and, in order to avoid the prison sentence, was forced to have intercourse with his wife while investigators watched. In 1965, Pintilie had directed the film Duminică la ora şase, which dealt in part with similar themes, but, as the director indicates, only hinted in that direction. It was showcased and acclaimed at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy. He recalls: "The film's prologue clearly placed the plot in the years of [Romanian] socialism. [...] Who are the youths from the film's prologue? I was asked directly by the audience [...] Aren't today's youths these youths in the film? No, I shamelessly lied, for there was clearly a possibility for prevarication, no, I said in order to be able to return to Romania and make The Reenactment." George Mihăiță recounts not realizing at first the importance of his role: "The best proof of [our] sublime unawareness was that, when shooting was over, I asked Pintilie—joking more or less—when he was going to give me a more important part to play... He smiled and said just this: 'Wait and see the movie!' " ==Impact and legacy==

Censorship The Reenactment release coincided with the peak of liberalization policies in Romania, and with a moment when Ceauşescu appeared to be pursuing an independent path within the Eastern Bloc. However, the film caused consternation among communist officials. Pătraşcu recalls that the film was only shown sporadically as the censorship apparatus was deciding its fate: it premiered at the Luceafărul Cinema in Bucharest, where "the projectionist was driven out of his mind" because it ran as the main feature for two months on end. According to George Mihăiță: "It's worth knowing that, upon viewing, some comrade [that is, communist official]—it no longer matters what his name was!—said 'this film ought to be stored in a room and someone should swallow the key'...!" Pintilie's Securitate file, made available for the public in the 2000s (decade), contains lengthy and minute reports on the film, and documents the negative reaction of official critics (quoted saying that the film is "mediocre" or "mean"), but also the appreciation from the part of more rebellious intellectuals. For instance, it describes how, moments after having seen the film in Bucharest, the avant-garde author and former communist Geo Bogza scribbled in the snow set on the director's car the words: "Long live Pintilie! The humble Geo Bogza." The same year however, he was able to return to the Pesaro Film Festival, where he was celebrated with a retrospective and a special trophy. Pintilie confesses that the ceremony failed to impress him at the time, due to his feelings of dissatisfaction and his determination to continue filming in Romania. Such events were also organized in other cities, among them London and Bologna, but Pintilie refused to attend them. In an interview with The New York Times, he records a meeting he had with the censors: "I was told, 'If you want to continue working here, you have to change your conception of the world.' I answered, 'But I've just started formulating it. [...] All I can do is develop it.' " In 2007, Romanian-born historian Irina Livezeanu and the Romanian Cultural Institute organized the festival Romanian Cinema on the Edge. The Reenactment was the only pre-1989 film to be aired alongside works by "New Wave" directors: Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest), Radu Muntean (The Paper Will Be Blue), Cristian Mungiu (Occident), Cristi Puiu (Stuff and Dough) and Cristian Nemescu (''California Dreamin'''). Alongside other major Romanian productions, it was shown as part of two Romanian film festivals in Canada: at Montreal (May 2007) and Toronto (February 2008). ==References==