Andrei Ujica
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, finale and end of the end of Communism by Andrei Ujica
With The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, Andrei Ujica has just finished his trilogy on the fall of Communism. Edited from archival images, this final segment focuses on the personality of the dictator who left his mark on Romanian history over the second half of the 20th century. For his first participation in the Festival, Andrei Ujica is presenting his film Out of Competition at 20:00 in the Salle du Soixantième.
In Videograms of a Revolution (1992), co-directed with Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica cast a look back on the events of December 1989 in Romania, which ended with the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime. This film, with its strong spirit of revolt, was followed by a second feature film, Out of the Present (1995). It recounts the story of Sergueï Krikaliov, a cosmonaut who spent ten months on the Mir space station while back on Earth, the Soviet Union was collapsing. On his return, he found a new Russia, after the failed putsch of 1991 in Moscow.
Fifteen years later, Andrei Ujica signed the third feature film in the series dealing with the fall of communism. The film represents a major work of montage using many archival images. “For The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, my point of departure was the largest archive I have ever used to date: there are more than one thousand hours of filmed images with Ceausescu.” After selection of the images and the montage of the rushes, Andrei Ujica delivered a film in which the Romanian dictator tells the story of his life, his reign and his trial, ending with his execution in 1989.
TK
