Uppercase Print

Film Screening

April 20, 2022 6:00 PM
April 20, 2022 8:00 PM
The story of Mugur Calinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police.
Events
film screening
The story of Mugur Calinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police.

In 1981, chalk signs in uppercase prints appeared in public squares in the Romanian city of Botosani. The signs called for freedom, referred to democratic development in Romania's socialist sister countries, or simply called for an improvement in the food supply. An investigation by the secret police revealed that they had been made by Mugur Călinescu, a high school student at the time. The young boy was repeatedly summoned for questioning and subsequently fell into a rapid physical decline, eventually dying in 1985. The theatre director Gianina Cărbunariu found the case files in the Romanian secret police archive and made a documentary based on the material. Filmmaker Radu Jude staged this play for the camera, interspersed with archival footage from Romanian television of the time: the secret personal story of Mugur, embedded in the collective Romanian history, to pay a fitting tribute to the forgotten young hero who fell victim to the regime.

Uppercase Print
Romania, 2020
feature film, 128 min
Romanian, with Hungarian and English subtitles

Film Info
Director: Radu Jude
Writers: Gianina Cărbunariu, Radu Jude
Producer: Ada Solomon
Cinematographer: Marius Panduru
Sound: Dana Bunescu
Editing: Cătălin Cristuţiu
Set design: Irina Moscu
HI Film Productions 

The film will be screened with Hungarian and English subtitles. Registration is required.

The program is part of the fearless program series organized by Blinken OSA and Freeszfe Association.