In 2019 the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw will be again a partner of the festival Wschód Kultury. Inny Wymiar / East of Culture. Another dimension from Białystok. On August 29, the day of the festival opening, the Forum Cinema will host the screening of the film
The Dead Nation / Țara moartă, directed by
Radu Jude, which will be preceded by a discussion with the historian Adrian Cioflâncă.
The Dead Nation is an essay-documentary about the amazing photo collection made by Costică Acsinte in a small town in Romania, in the `30s and `40s. The film
soundtrack is made of fragments from the Jewish-born writer and doctor Emil Dorian`s diary and sound materials of Carlist, legionary and communist propaganda from the National Film Archives show what the photographs cannot tell: the rising of the anti-Semitism and eventually, a harrowing depiction of the Romanian Holocaust, a topic which is not very talked about in the contemporary Romanian society. Cătălin Cristuţiu signs the editing, Dana Bunescu signs the sound design. Marius Panduru was the technical consultant. The film was made with the support of Cezar Mario Popescu, who discovered Costică Acsinte`s photographs.
The event will be opened by a discussion with the historian Adrian Cioflâncă about the film and his perception at the level of society, about the history memory and the way it functions. Adrian Cioflâncă is the director of the Center for the Study of the Jewish History in Romania and board member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, researcher at the “A.D.Xenopol” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy. He participated in the International Commission of the Holocaust in Romania (2003-2004) and he was an expert in the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, co-authoring both commission
Final Reports.
From 2005 he has been a member in the Romania`s delegation at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (the former Holocaust Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research). He was a Tziporah Wiesel Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington (2009). From 2010 to 2012 he was the head of department at the Institute for Investigation of Communist Crimes and Memory of Romanian Exile. He edited seven books, in collaboration. The latest work is
Istoria recentă altfel. Perspective culturale, Andi Mihalache, Adrian Cioflâncă (coordinators), Iaşi, Editura Universităţii “Al. I Cuza”, 2013. He published more studies in fields such as the history of Holocaust, the history of Communism, political violence, cultural history, history theory.
The festival Wschód Kultury. Inny Wymiar / East of Culture. Another Dimension presents the richness of the multi-culturalness of the region Podlasie, and mostly of the town Białystok. It promotes the idea of the dialogue and tolerance in a town which is very culturally diverse, where for centuries Polish people lived alongside Russians, Byelorussians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Jewish and Germans. It rememorates the past, presenting also the contemporary achievements, it connects history with the modern artistic activity. The festival is co-organized by the Center for Culture Białystok, together with the National Center for Culture, with the support of the polish Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony and of the city of Białystok.
Details:
www.icr.ro
