Wednesday, 14 December 2016
LFF#60: Films Consume Us, Part III
Tuesday, 13 December 2016
LFF#60: Films Consume Us, Part II
Friday, 4 January 2013
Ceaușescu's Last Action Hero
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| Sergiu Nicolaescu |
Sergiu Nicolaescu died yesterday at 82. Here, I pay tribute to one of my first movie stars and heroes, who enjoyed massive popularity in Iran.
In June 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the seemingly never-ending 1979 revolution, died at 86. Among the few Western politicians who bothered to travel to Tehran to pay homage to the deceased Ayatollah, in his recently built and quickly expanding tomb (or more likely, shrine), was a short man wearing a tie. Seeing a European statesman—even from the eastern side of the continent—was a rare sight in those days. The country had just signed a treaty with Iraq after eight years of exhaustive war and was totally isolated. All Western countries were backing Saddam Hussein.
Being a curious child, I asked my father who that man was. My father, probably thinking that the concept of a Romanian president might be too abstract for me, answered: “He is the president of Inspector Moldovan’s country.” The answer was solid enough for someone whose movie hero happened to be from Romania: director, actor, and producer Sergiu Nicolaescu.


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