FILM-ROMANIA: Hollywood Takes Over

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marian Chiriac

BUCHAREST, Aug 6 2002 (IPS) - Potigrafu was a small and scenic village till the other day, set amid 90 hectares of forest and stunning landscape. Now it is a set for a Hollywood film.

Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Donald Sutherland are among the stars you see now in this village that few had visited before. They are shooting for ‘Cold Mountain’, a big budget film on the U.S. civil war, with Anthony Minghella (Oscar winner for ‘The English Patient’) as director.

The unspoiled countryside and the low cost of using it is making Romania a favoured destination now for Hollywood producers. Extras are paid about 10 dollars a day. A small mediaeval castle can be rented for a few thousand dollars a week.

Local people, mostly farmers, have found new work as extras in this village near the capital Bucharest. Renting fields out for battle scenes is extra income. “I get good money, and they will help me and my family live without problems into the next year,” says Sandu Vasile, who otherwise earns less than 100 dollars a month.

Romania is among the poorest countries in Eastern Europe. About 30 per cent of its population of 22 million live below the poverty line.

Some of the films shot in Romania over the last couple of years like ‘Callas Forever’ directed by Franco Zeffirrelli and the controversial ‘Amen’ by Costa Gavras set the stage for Minghella’s production.

“The film industry will bring to Romania around ten million dollars this year alone,” says Vlad Paunescu from Castel Films, the Romanian company involved with the production of ‘Cold Mountain’.

But not everyone is happy over such developments. “Romanians are going to get tough with the Americans over their movies,” says a local film director who does not wish to be named. “There are too many and they are too popular. They are swamping the nearly dying domestic industry.”

The top 25 films shown in Romania last year, ranked by audience size, were all American productions or co-productions. And that was in a good year for the local film industry when four Romanian films were released. In 2000 no film was produced.

Romanian cinema had enjoyed great success under the communist regime. Many classics were produced with the help of government subsidies. The films became noted widely for their playful innocence and gentle humour.

State-owned production and distribution companies created conditions in which about 20 to 25 films were produced every year during the eighties. Some of them won awards at international festivals.

The economic crisis that came with the end of communism at the end of the eighties saw filmmakers struggle to make ends meet. The few films made in the nineties were mostly low budget crime thrillers.

“The standard measure of the health of a country’s cinema is the number of films it produces in a year,” says critic Cristina Corciovescu. “Nowadays in Romania you count how many years it took to make one film.”

The turbulent post-communism era has deepened a moral and spiritual crisis among Romanians. Action films and celluloid pornography – the staple diet of cheap television programming – have provided an escapist outlet.

“Less and less people are interested now in going to the cinema,” says Constantin Valureanu, a 45-year-old engineer. “A night at the cinema is too expensive for the poor, and broadcast television costs nothing.”

As in much of East Europe, the cinema business has declined. An audience of about 200 million a year in the eighties fell to about 130 million by 1990 and to less than 10 million in 2000, according to industry figures.

In such conditions the future of the Romanian film industry looks grey. “It’s time for a new start,” says Tudor Giurgiu, 30, looking to make a debut as director. “But we need strong local producers who are impossible to find because of the harsh economic conditions.” Until it gets better, over to Hollywood.