A Film a Week - Libertate

 previously published on Cineuropa

Of the images from the Romanian Revolution that occurred in the last few days of 1989, we certainly remember the photo of the dictator being shot by the army. We may also recall the simplified stories about how it all started in Timişoara, what happened in Bucharest and how the military sided with the people, against the police and the much-feared secret service, the Securitate, which remained faithful to the dictator until later on. However, we do not necessarily know about the events in, for instance, the Transylvanian town of Sibiu. Those happenings are the topic of Tudor Giurgiu’s newest film, Libertate, which, after its world premiere at the Transilvania International Film Festival, has enjoyed its international one in competition at Sarajevo.

The opening info-card informs us that the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu relied on pitting different groups, such as the army, police, secret service and civilians, against one another so that it could have firmer control over each of them. But once the protests began, things escalated quickly, bringing the country to the brink of civil war. In Sibiu, the army interned policemen, suspected Securitate operatives and their contacts, as well as a number of civilians (some of them by mistake) in an empty swimming pool, where it kept them under guard until the captives were questioned, sentenced or released.

We observe the chaotic, civil war-like events from several perspectives of the people involved in different sides of the conflict. The (sort of) protagonist is police officer Viorel Stanese (Alex Calangiu in his first main big-screen role), who decides to go to work on the fateful day when his police station is attacked by the angry mob, which soon enough get hold of weapons from the armoury. Viorel and his colleagues then try to escape, but they are swiftly detained by the army and sent to the pool. Notable among the other points of view are those of opportunistic cab driver Leahu (Catalin Herlo), who may or may not be a secret-service informer, and Lieutenant Colonel Dragoman (Iulian Postelnicu), who, although initially on the right side of history, gets intoxicated by his newly acquired power over the life and death of people. Some other, shorter episodes include other individuals, some of them civilians who got arrested simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, while far-fetched theories about the terrorists poisoning water, digging tunnels and preparing counter-revolutionary attacks on the army and the people do the rounds.

The approach that Giurgiu adopts is not dissimilar to the one he employed in his previous, fact-heavy political drama-thriller Why Me?(2015), also based on true events, since the source materials of both films were obtained through extensive research into the two occurrences. However, things are less linear in Libertate, and Giurgiu and his co-screenwriter Cecilia Stefanescu focus on more than one individual and their stories. The style is also similar in terms of the frequent use of long, single-take sequences with a hand-held camera, but here the camerawork tends to be shakier and more chaotic, which actually fits the material perfectly, especially in the action-packed first half, while both the camerawork by Alexandru Sterian and the editing by Réka Lemhényi get steadier and more predictable once the whole internment situation seems “normalised”, both for the jailers and the captives.

Tudor Giurgiu paints a realistic picture of the revolutionary chaos and turmoil, questions the established narratives and, most importantly, makes a thrilling film that grabs viewers’ attention, elicits an emotional response and leaves a lasting impression.