Where did Bucharest’s bikini-clad folk and local freethinkers spend their time? How do you prevent road accidents in a country where no one follows the rules? During the Ceausescu dictatorship, Romanian cinema was seen as the perfect propaganda tool and came under strict Communist Party control. The only genre where filmmakers had relative freedom was the short film. This set of short documentaries from 1963 to 1980, prepared in collaboration with the One World Romania festival, proves that even in oppressive conditions, filmmakers could produce works with remarkable artistic merit. These films tackled social issues inconvenient to the authorities—prostitution, workplace accidents, and the crushing weight of a dehumanizing system.

Konrad Wirkowski