The 1989 Revolution was before my time, I only know about it from my mom, but her stories never affected me as much as the films on this topic did. Films have a different impact, they are a very effective tool for disseminating information and raising awareness – and when the script and the actors are extraordinary, it’s impossible not to stir something in you. Tudor Giurgiu’s latest film, Freedom, transported me right into the midst of the protests in Sibiu. The action revolves around a police station that becomes the target of a violent assault, causing chaos throughout the city and leading to a bloody confrontation between soldiers, policemen, civilian protesters, and representatives of the secret police, all turning into a mass confusion about who the enemy is, and who is on the right side of history. It was Oana Giurgiu who came up with the idea for the film, and the project started with Napoleon Helmis as the director, with whom Cecilia Ștefănescu worked for a long time on the script. Years passed, and many things changed – most notably, Tudor Giurgiu stepped in as the new director of the film. I met with producer Oana Giurgiu and screenwriter Cecilia Ștefănescu to find out more about the film and out came an insightful interview about the idea-to-big screen evolution of the project, the challenges encountered along the way, and life during communism.

Oana, it’s you who came up with the idea for Freedom, you really wanted to make a film about the Revolution. Why is that?

It started from a discussion with director Napoleon Helmis. I thought that for people in my generation, the film would be a natural conclusion to a cycle, that there needs to be such a film 30 years after the Revolution. It didn’t turn out to be that way because the path of a film is winding and unpredictable, and that pushed us far beyond the period I had prepared for. And other stuff appeared along the way; over time, I understood that we wouldn’t be able to make a film about the Revolution in Bucharest, and when I learned the story of the events in Sibiu, I thought it was special. I was fascinated that, even though I thought I knew everything about the ’89 Revolution, I knew nothing about this part of it.

Cecilia, how did you become involved in the project?

Cecilia: Oana called me and told me that she and Napoleon have an idea – he was actually one of the participants in the Revolution.

Oana: I must confess that I wanted writer Florin Iaru to be a consultant on the script because he and Napoleon were arrested on December 21 in Bucharest.

Cecilia: We met a few times and then I dove into the enormous material used for research – testimonies from participants, books, followed by my own investigation, all of which took place in 2016. For about two years, I worked on my own on the script. From the moment Tudor joined the project, we decided to reset and rewrite the script a bit. As you discover things, it becomes harder and harder to separate them and set aside certain stories, which may be extremely powerful but cannot be written as subplots.

Oana: The idea we started with and developed changed over time. It added up to a very big-budget film, whose financing was basically impossible, and things didn’t work out with the timeframe either because Napoleon had another project to finish. That’s when Tudor Giurgiu took over as the director.

You were both 14 years old when the Revolution started. Where were you then, and what has stayed with you from those days?

Cecilia: For me, the story begins much earlier. In the second grade, I started writing poetry, and I wrote a 12-verse poem that had a deep religious vein. My dad read the poem and told me about censorship – we spoke freely at home, my parents listened to Radio Free Europe, like most families back then. I got the shortest and most pragmatic lesson about deprivation of freedom and the world we lived in.

I remember my parents as two people very tormented by the world they lived in. Just an example – one winter afternoon, I was coming home with my mom from a grocery run, where she had bought a carton of eggs. We were trying to make our way through some snowdrifts, with me holding onto her coat. At one point, I lost my balance, and we both fell, and she dropped the carton of eggs. My mom, with frozen hands, picked up the egg yolks from the ground, crying. Although we had a normal life, I witnessed my parents’ struggle to find their place. On December 16, when everyone was seething after the events in Timișoara, the smell of revolution was in the air.

Oana: I left for Piatra Neamț on December 17, so I lived the Revolution in front of the TV. I remember that me and my uncle wanted to go out, and it had snowed, and there were only our footprints in the city, nothing was happening. On December 21, they announced on Radio Free Europe to turn off all lights at 8 PM and light candles in our homes. We were both eager and scared for what would follow.

Cecilia: On December 21, there was a rumor that poet Florin Iaru had died and the news made me cry – this idea that a writer (which was what I wanted to become when I grew up) had died for freedom. I thought it was awful. The next day, I went outside with my mom, because there was such an uproar on the TV. But we didn’t stay long because a man came to tell my mom to take me home because it wasn’t safe for me. That’s when I felt fear. The Revolution was a very important moment, for which I am grateful to my parents.

Oana: Our parents told us almost daily not to tell anyone that we listened to Radio Free Europe – we knew from a young age that what we were doing was dangerous. Being 14 at the time, an age that shapes who you are as a person, it was a defining moment for me. I gained the freedom to speak my mind and I could never give it up – I don’t know if the younger generation can understand how important it is to be able to speak your mind.

Cecilia: 14 is the perfect age to understand the times you’re leaving behind; you’re not too young to not understand what’s happening, and not too old to be deeply affected.

How do you relate now to what you experienced during communism – are there any traumas or fears that you still struggle with?

Oana: Yes, all kinds of things come back to me since the war broke out in Ukraine. I think we understand much better what it means to live a lie, in that imminent danger, compared to others who haven’t. I don’t live in fear because we won our freedom, but there are many things that have left a mark on us.

Cecilia: I feel like I learn something new every passing day. I went through an abominable period, which I survived. I still carry that cold from before ’89 in my bones. I’m always cold in the winter and need to keep the house and warm. The mere idea that it could be below 20 degrees in the house terrifies me. Other than that, in today’s world, we are free to seek the truth and denounce lies, and that is extremely important. The political environment is without a doubt plagued by lies, manipulation, and corruption.

Oana: There is a reason for that, the course of this country’s history has made us not trust politicians. Given how often regimes, powers, and rulers changed throughout history, how can you expect something else?

People say there have been too many films on communism. What’s your take on that?

Cecilia: For both our generation and the younger ones, it’s a natural course, there are questions we have to ask ourselves. I think there’s still a lot to say, and it would be interesting to see how other colleagues would approach the topic, and what are the questions that live in their minds – there are always different angles to work from. While working on Freedom, there were debates among us, we didn’t always agree on everything, and that’s normal because there are different perspectives, so there are constantly new things to discover. I think the people who are tired of films about communism are the older generations, who are fed up, they want to see something else, but I feel that the interest is rekindled.

Laura Mușat

Film producer and founder of ADFR, she dreamed since she was little of having a magazine one day. Alongside her job as editor-in-chief, she writes the interview of the month. She loves animals, jazz music and films festivals.