Poetry, a cry for freedom

This year’s 64th Krakow Film Festival presented the moving documentary ‘Between Silence and Sin’, which opened the ‘Focus on Romania’ series. The film premiered on 29th May and attracted crowds of viewers eager to learn more about the unknown face of the famous Romanian poet and activist Ana Blandiana.

Ana Blandiana is one of the most important European poets, whose poems and activist work have changed the landscape of Romanian culture forever. Otilia Valeria Coman, for that is the poet’s real name, as the daughter of an ‘enemy of the people’, had to give herself a new name in order to have the chance to publish her poems. As Ana Blandiana, she also exposed herself to the dictatorial Nicolae Ceaușescu in power. The legendary author’s poetry was used as a form of resistance, constituting the first samizdat of Romanian literature. Her poems moved and enthralled readers and literary enthusiasts even beyond the country’s borders. Her books of poems were published in the West, which opened many doors for her, including those to freedom. However, despite many opportunities, she decided to stay in the country and fight for the freedom of the whole nation in the name of justice.

Before the screening, the director of ‘Between Silence and Sin’, Diana Nicolae, a respected documentary filmmaker and producer, invited the audience on an extraordinary journey through Ana Blandiana’s life at a time of political and social turbulence in Romania, explaining why she decided to make this documentary. – ‘I wanted to show Ana not only as an outstanding poet, but also as a steadfast fighter for freedom and human rights,’ she said, arousing the audience’s curiosity and admiration for the film’s heroine.

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