Uppercase Print (2020)

November 17, 2021 11:37 AM

The story of Mugur Călinescu, a Romanian teenager who wrote chalk graffiti messages of protest against the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and was subsequently apprehended, interrogated, and ultimately crushed by the secret police. Radu Jude's film is a bold hybrid, combining archive documentary with a highly theatrical staging of a ‘documentary play’ by Gianina Carbunariu.

Currently streaming in the US via Metrograph.

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

30,000 handwriting samples studied and 79 informers put to work after the first instance of fairly anodyne "We want freedom!" kind of stuff. In chalk.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2021

Try to imagine the full force of the FBI being brought in because a teenager in, like, Provo, was writing things on the wall in chalk like, "We shouldn't have to pay for hot water if there isn't any." And then they crushed him.

There's more to this than just the story though. The context of how insane this time is... Propaganda videos and songs, a sting operation to catch people using their horns inappropriately...
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:29 AM on November 23, 2021

I really got a lot out of this in understanding my spouse's background, from the indoctrination to the casual surveillance, to the scarcity of everything, to the paranoia.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:37 PM on November 23, 2021

Available for digital rental via Musicbox Direct.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:38 AM on November 24, 2021