More details soon.

Never mind all that: Let’s talk vampires.”

New Book:

DRACULA IS DEAD
How Romanians Survived Communism, ended it, and emerged since 1989 as the New Italy

by Sheilah Kast and Jim Rosapepe

Hardcover, 424 pages, 32 black-and-white photographs, 12 maps, Bancroft Press (November 2009). ISBN 978-1-890862-65-7

BOOK LAUNCH EVENT

Monday 23 November 2009, 19.00-21.00, Ratiu Foundation, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1U 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext. 108. ENTRANCE BY INVITATION ONLY. RSVP at bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk or call us on Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext. 108.

The public will be able to buy the book on the evening at the special price of £15.00 (regular price £18.99), when the authors will also sign copies. If you would like to reserve your book, or are not able to attend the event but would still like to purchase a signed copy, go to www.DraculaIsDead.com to buy it online, or send us a cheque to the value of £15.00, made to the name “Romanian Cultural Centre” by Thursday 19 November 2009 at the latest. For deliveries (UK only), please add the sum of £3.00 (postage and packing) to the price of the book.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“If they gave out gold medals for books, ‘Dracula is Dead’ would get one. It’s a fascinating, long overdue, and timely look at Romania, giving readers an unparalleled view of my country’s many, many layers.” – Nadia Comaneci, Olympic Champion and gymnastics coach

“Romania is a living legacy of Rome [...]. Jim and Sheilah are outstanding guides to this country, which is both familiar and exotic.” – Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, 1997-2001

“Vivid travelogue, gripping memoir, and accurate analysis [...]. Highly recommended to all those who want to understand the human underpinnings of the struggle for freedom in East-Central Europe.” – Vladimir Tismaneanu, historian

SYNOPSIS

Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, ‘Dracula is Dead’ takes readers on a memorable tour of Romania – past, present, and future. Through a series of colourful vignettes, former United States ambassador to Romania Jim Rosapepe and distinguished journalist Sheilah Kast, his wife, introduce us to the people, places, and history of Romania, transporting us to a vibrant country most of us know little about.

When people think about Romania, what most often comes to mind are images of Dracula’s fog-enshrouded castle in Transylvania, bleak orphanages, and an oppressed people reeling from Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime. In ‘Dracula is Dead’, the authors set the record straight, presenting a thriving nation that has overcome centuries of tyranny to emerge as a true success story with a bright future – that’s why they call it the New Italy. This compelling volume fills a void in the literature about Romania. On a larger scale, it explains the impact of the fall of Communism in Europe and helps us understand the growth of democracy throughout the world.

As Kast and Rosapepe write in their preface, “Many of Romania’s most difficult challenges in the twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany and the fall of the Ceausescu dictatorship in Romania have been similar to those encountered throughout the former Soviet bloc … This is the story of all 350 million people in two dozen countries.” The authors write from their experiences in Romania over the past decade, including the years when Rosapepe served as US Ambassador (1998 to 2001). They experienced the inner workings of Romania – from the mines to the monasteries, from the hospitals to the software labs. They met Romanians from all walks of life at town meetings, on farms, in remote villages, and in schools and factories. They also spoke with American missionaries and Peace Corps volunteers, entrepreneurs, and Romanian Americans who came to Romania after the fall of Communism in December 1989. Many of their remarkable stories are included in this volume, in their own words.

The book features personages ranging from Ion Iliescu, both a leading figure during Communism and Romania’s first democratically elected president, to church leaders and the heads of the Jewish community, students, small-town mayors, and a colourful cast of real-life characters, including singing monks, IT entrepreneurs, and “The Mother-in-Law of the Year.”

Details on the book can be found on www.DraculaIsDead.com

Various cinemas nationwide: see a list of theatres, as well as the film’s trailer, on www.talesfromthegoldenage.co.uk

From the creators of the Cannes 2007 Palme d’Or winner ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’:

• Tales from the Golden Age
Romania / 2009 / 131 mins / Romanian with English subtitles
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or, Cannes 2007), Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Constantin Popescu

The final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime were the worst in Romania’s history. Nonetheless, the propaganda machine of that time referred without fail to that period as “the golden age”…

‘Tales from the Golden Age’ adapts for screen the most popular urban myths of the period. Comic, bizarre, surprising myths abounded, myths that drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime.

The film is composed of several stories connected by the mood, narrative pattern and the details of the historical period: The Legend of the Official Visit, The Legend of the Party Photographer, The Legend of the Chicken Driver, The Legend of the Greedy Policeman, The Legend of the Air Sellers.

‘Tales from the Golden Age’ was released in UK cinemas by Trinity on 30 October 2009.

The UK Premiere of ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ was organised by Trinity and the Ratiu Foundation, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Centre in London.

For more information and press images, please contact us on mail@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Monday 16 November 2009
19.00-21.00, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext 108; e-mail: bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk; Entry is free but booking is essential.

Hosted by Dr Mike Phillips OBE, British novelist, historian and curator.

The public space in Bucharest is dotted with monuments commemorating various events or characters from the history of Romania, many of them erected in recent years, after the fall of communism in 1989. Some of them have been (and still are) much derided by the public, some were adopted more readily than the former, while others have a special place in the hearts of Bucharest’s inhabitants.

This year, a long-awaited memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Romania was inaugurated. Starting from this point, architect Augustin Ioan – special guest of the Culture Poser series for the second time – proposes a frank presentation and discussion on the subject of the so-called Architecture of Memory in Bucharest in particular, and in Romania in general.

With this occasion, we are also going to introduce to the audience his latest book, ‘Modern Architecture and the Totalitarian Project’ (Romanian Cultural Institute Press, 2009, 198 pages, ISBN: 978-973-577-577-3), a study into the relationship between totalitarianism and modernity, with a special emphasis on the case of buildings in Romania.

Augustin Ioan is a professor at the University of Architecture and Planning in Bucharest, Romania, and also a practicing architect. With post-graduate studies at Oxford and in the US, Augustin Ioan holds doctoral degrees in the history of architecture (1998) and philosophy (2002). He has published extensively in Romania, Europe and the US.

Images above show (clockwise from top left): statue of statesman Iuliu Maniu; statue of politician Corneliu Coposu; part of the official monument commemorating the victims of the 1989 revolution; plaque in Bucharest’s University Square reading “Here, people died for freedom”; the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Romania; (unofficial) shrine and plaques in memory of the young men and women who died in the revolution; the obelisk of the official monument commemorating the victims of the 1989 revolution.

Organised by The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London

Culture Power is a programme initiated by the Ratiu Foundation, consisting of a number of presentations and constructive dialogue with an invited audience.

Cementing Secession?
Transnational Big Business, Identity, and Politics on Moldova’s Frozen War Front

a presentation by Rebecca Chamberlain-Creanga

Tuesday 3 November 2009
19.00-21.00, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext 108; e-mail: bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk ; Entry is free but booking is essential.

Moderator: David Webster, Director of the Anglo-Romanian Economic and Political Forum

“This presentation examines competing political-economic forces and identity formations dividing and uniting the newly independent, post-Soviet country of Moldova, torn apart by separatism. It is based on new field research conducted in the Republic of Moldova in spring 2009 (March-June) on the relationship between identity formation and political process in and between Moldova and its separatist region of Transdnistria. It addresses how democratic processes and political transformations articulate with and affect the diverging Moldovan-Transdnistrian identity formations discovered during my 2005-06 doctoral fieldwork.

Will burgeoning democratization – just beginning in Transdnistria and yet solidifying in right-bank Moldova – bring both warring sides together, the study asks? The topic is timely in that it covers Moldova’s April and July 2009 parliamentary election. It looks at the impact of elections, political crisis and coalition-building on the Moldovan-Transdnistrian conflict settlement process, as well as Moldova’s relationship with Romania and the European Union. The paper speaks to policy-relevant debates about the interplay between citizen and elite interests, as well as raises questions about whether small, newly independent countries like Moldova can decide their fate”. – Rebecca Chamberlain-Creanga

Rebecca Chamberlain-Creanga is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), specializing in the ethnographic study of governance and the political-economy of conflict, including transnational dimensions and local-level sources of separatism. As a former British FCO-sponsored Marshall Scholar to Great Britain, she holds MSc and MA degrees from the LSE and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies/UCL. Her Bachelors degree training is in International Relations. Chamberlain-Creanga worked as a US Department of State (IREX Title VIII) Embassy Policy Specialist at the US Embassy Chisinau in summer 2007. Chamberlain-Creanga lived on both of Moldova’s river banks, including in the separatist Transdnistrian region, for almost two years in 2004-06 for the study Manufacturing Separatism: Transnational Economy, Identity, and State Formation on a Post-Soviet Frozen War Front, supported by several US Department of State/Title VIII academic fellowships. She will be a Research Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. in 2010, supported by the US Department of State’s Program for Research and Training. She is a contributor to Weak State, Uncertain Citizenship: Moldova (Heintz ed., Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 2008). Prior to her research on the Republic of Moldova, Chamberlain-Creanga investigated issues of ethnicity and conflict in Bosnia and Croatia as a Rotary Foundation Scholar, writing opinion-editorials on the Kosovo conflict for several major American newspapers. She has been married over 8 years to Romanian Ovidiu Creanga (PhD Religion).

Organised by The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London
www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com; www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk
Culture Power is a programme initiated by the Ratiu Foundation, consisting of a number of presentations and constructive dialogue with an invited audience.

Friday 30 October 2009, 19.00-21.00, The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre
Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295, ext 108;
e-mail: bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk; Entry is free but booking is essential.

Moderator: Ramona Mitrica, Director of the Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London

Following its successful participation at the Dublin Fringe Festival, ‘Elevator’ comes to London. Part of the Culture Power series of talks, seminars and presentations initiated by the Ratiu Foundation, the event features a rehearsed reading of the play, followed by a discussion with the playwright, Gabriel Pintilei.

Inspired by a real-life story, ‘Elevator’ won a new writing competition and was subsequently followed by successful mountings both in its native Romania as well as abroad. Currently, its award-winning film version is touring venues worldwide. The first from a series of plays which aim to bring Romanian new writing into British mainstream production, the original stage script has been translated by actress and producer Cristina Catalina and developed further with the help of director Rachel Parish, aimed to lead to a full production in spring 2010.

‘Elevator’ is a moving two-hander about two young people who get trapped in the lift of an abandoned building. Caught in the trap of their own romantic intention to escape reality, the protagonists run through the gamut of human interaction as they wait longer and longer to be rescued. Their relationship goes from being superficial, to violent and to tender and simple as they try to come to grips with their increasingly dangerous situation.

Gabriel Pintilei, writer:
Award winning actor, director, choreographer, playwright and screenwriter form Romania. His script Elevator won Best New Romanian Play at the Romanian Dramaturgy Festival 2007 in Timisoara. He currently conducts most of his activities at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest and is attending the 5th European Psychoanalytic Film Festival in London with Elevator, the film.

Jessica Clark, actor:
Graduated from Hull University and was previously a member of the National Youth Theatre. Theatre includes You Beautiful Ewe (Roundhouse Theatre), and Camp Horror (Cockpit Theatre). TV & film: Silent Witness, In Search of the Brontes (BBC).

Ryan Sampson, actor:
Theatre: Dido – Queen of Carthage, DNA, The Miracle (National Theatre), Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Quran (Bush Theatre), Richard II and Richard III (Sheffield Crucible Theatre). TV & film: After You’ve Gone (series regular), Doctor Who, (BBC), Wire in the Blood II (ITV).

Rachel Parish, director:
Artistic Director of Firehouse Creative Productions and director-in-residence for Three Bird Theatre, she has directed at fringe and off west end venues across London and UK, including Confessions at Edinburgh, The Silents at The Albany and Love and Money for the Young Vic Shorts. She has conducted performance research in USA, Canada and West Africa.

Organised by The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre in London
www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com; www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

The presence of writer Gabriel Pintilei in London has been made possible with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Culture Power is a programme initiated by the Ratiu Foundation, consisting of a number of presentations and constructive dialogue with an invited audience.

COMRADES, BEWARE! RENEGADE FILM-MAKERS URICARU AND HOFER ARE IN LONDON!

Catch them at the post-screening party on Thursday 29 October 2009, at 20.30, at the Ratiu Foundation, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 (int. 108).

There will be snacks, drinks, and answers to your questions. comrades, you have the right to have fun and find out everything about ‘Tales from the Golden Age’

COMRADES, BE OUR GUESTS! THIS IS HOW TO DO IT:
The Party is open to all ticket-holders who attended the special screening of ‘Tales from the Golden Age’, on the evening of Thursday 29 October 2009, at 18.00, at the Renoir Cinema (The Brunswick, London WC1N 1AW; Tube: Russell Square). The film is followed by a Q&A with Ioana Uricaru and Hanno Hofer, two of the film’s directors.

Make sure you attend the most important Romanian cinema event of Autumn 2009. Book your tickets from www.curzoncinemas.com or Box Office 0871 7033 991.

After the film at Renoir, come as quick as possible to Manchester Square for the reception (you don’t want the special reserve chilled wine to get warm). Please note that entrance to the party is possible on the basis of your cinema ticket ONLY. Please keep the ticket stub and present it on the door.

FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT THE FILM: THERE’S ALWAYS THE SYNOPSIS
From the creators of the Cannes 2007 Palme d’Or winner ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ comes

Tales from the Golden Age

Romania / 2009 / 131 mins / Romanian with English subtitles
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or, Cannes 2007), Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Constantin Popescu

The final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime were the worst in Romania’s history. Nonetheless, the propaganda machine of that time referred without fail to that period as “the golden age”…
‘Tales from the Golden Age’ adapts for screen the most popular urban myths of the period. Comic, bizarre, surprising myths abounded, myths that drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime. For more information on www.talesfromthegoldenage.co.uk. To see the film’s trailer, please click here.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Two young communists have presented a record number of bottles and jars to a glass recycling point. The surprised recycling officer counted no less that 500 items, for which the responsible young people have been rewarded with a hefty sum.

They promised that the money will be spent in organising weekends of patriotic work for their colleagues, and donate further profits to their school’s bursary.
Well done, young comrades!

A chicken farm, which is noted for its over-production of eggs and for always surpassing their state-appointed quota, has recently allocated a bonus of one carton of eggs per employee. Over-achiever driver Comrade Grigore P. is took his fair share, as well as that of his cousin, who didn’t feel well that day.
Congratulations, comrade, enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu is on a work visit to the Ilfov Agricultural Sector of Bucharest. While travelling, Comrade Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party, hero among the heroes of our land, was received with joy and displays of local produce in all villages along his route. Here, the local mayor makes the final adjustments to an otherwise excellent showcase of industriousness and love for the motherland. He set an example for us all!

A not so very good piece of news comes from our capital: greedy policeman Alexa I., whose name will be kept secret, has received from his countryside-living brother a live pig. It is illegal to keep pigs in a block of flats, and this has been reported to the appropriate State organisations. Shame on you, comrades, for not refusing this shameful gift.

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

A very funny story which we cannot put in print, given that it is connected to Comrade Ceausescu and his hat. We hope you have enough imagination to fill in the blanks.

Shamelessly funny comedy ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ is released in cinemas nationwide by Trinity, on 30 October 2009. Cinema details on www.talesfromthegoldenage.co.uk.

The UK Premiere of ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ is organised by comrades film distributors Trinity and the work-collective of the Ratiu Foundation, with the support of the comrades culture makers from the Romanian Cultural Centre in London.

followed by an extraordinary Q&A session with directors Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, and Constantin Popescu.

Thursday 29 October 2009, at 18.00
Renoir Cinema, The Brunswick, London WC1N 1AW
Tube: Russell Square; Buses: 7, 59, 68, 91, 168, 188
Tickets from www.curzoncinemas.com or Box Office 0871 7033 991

Book the date in your diary for the most important Romanian film event of Autumn 2009!

From the creators of the Cannes 2007 Palme d’Or winner ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’:

• Tales from the Golden Age
Romania / 2009 / 131 mins / Romanian with English subtitles
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or, Cannes 2007), Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Constantin Popescu

The final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime were the worst in Romania’s history. Nonetheless, the propaganda machine of that time referred without fail to that period as “the golden age”…

‘Tales from the Golden Age’ adapts for screen the most popular urban myths of the period. Comic, bizarre, surprising myths abounded, myths that drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime.

The film is composed of several stories connected by the mood, narrative pattern and the details of the historical period: The Legend of the Official Visit, The Legend of the Party Photographer, The Legend of the Chicken Driver, The Legend of the Greedy Policeman, The Legend of the Air Sellers.

See the trailer and find more information, including a blog, on www.talesfromthegoldenage.com.

‘Tales from the Golden Age’ is released in UK cinemas by Trinity on 30 October 2009.

We are looking for media partners. If you want to make a contribution towards this major Romanian cultural event in Britain, please contact us on mail@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk .

The UK Premiere of ‘Tales from the Golden Age’ is organised by Trinity and the Ratiu Foundation, with the support of the Romanian Cultural Centre in London.

For more information and press images, please contact us on mail@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Featuring Esma Redzepova, Mahala Rai Banda, Fanfare Ciocarlia and more…

Monday 19 October 2009, 19.30
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1 8XX; Box Office: 0871 663 2500. Tickets: £22.50, £20, £17.50 (concessions: 50%, limited availability).
Details and tickets on www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Following sold-out shows across the world, The Legendary Gypsy Queens and Kings return to London, featuring Mahala Rai Banda (Romania), Florentina Sandu (Romania), Esma Redzepova (Macedonia), Jony Iliev (Bulgaria), Kaloome (France), and introduced by the absolute masters of Gypsy brass, the unique Fanfare Ciocarlia (Romania).

New to The Gypsy Queens and Kings 2009 is Romanian brass band Mahala Rai Banda who performs exclusive material especially created for this show.

‘The best Gypsy Party this side of the Danube.’ (The Guardian)

17 October-30 November 2009. The Ratiu Foundation / Romanian Cultural Centre
Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 6EQ; Tel. 020 7486 0295 ext. 108
Opening times: Mon – Fri 12.00 – 18.00. Admission free
(booking essential, by phone or e-mail at bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk).
Private View: Saturday 17 October 2009. Admission by invitation ONLY.

Shown as a cinematic collection of photograms displayed panoramically, the ‘360-degree room drawings’ project consists of a special scenography which aims to affect the relationship contemporary humans have with time-turned-history and with symbolic gestures which consistently reclaim their significance.

Present-day Romanian thirty-year-olds, who spent their childhood at the apex of communism (many living in apartment blocks taller than 10 floors), had the habit of playing “inside the staircase”. This was the common place of a more or less coerced communion. They jumped down the stairs, progressively increasing the number of steps, ascending and descending until exhaustion. The gesture, besides the personal ambitions of competition, constantly regenerated the children’s relation to the initially dull space. Its transformation into an unofficial playground enabled, or rather tried to enable, the stairwell’s ludic function. It was, ultimately, a subversive gesture, frowned upon by the elderly, unequalled in message by its ludic content and unsanctioned because of the “innocence” of young age.

Raluca Popa’s drawings reiterate an action older than two decades, concentrated in a circular universe. They have a powerful cinematic effect, visually speaking, and search for a possible meaning in the present. The overall effect is that of a stairwell from the olden days, to which books are added. They transform the space into a sort of library across time, meant for grown-ups, but housed in a space “built” by children. The goal is for the viewer to be able to ignore the initial space and to concentrate on a Bergsonian relationship between movement and freedom. Looking at the drawings now, we realise why the children were competing. The winners were those who jumped over the greatest number of steps: the more steps they jumped over, the freer they were. – Text by Raymond Bobar

RALUCA POPA (born in 1979) lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. She has a BA degree in fine arts from the University of Art & Design, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (1999-2003) and a MA degree in Fine Arts from the same university (2003-2005). Additional studies include a three-month scholarship at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Castilla-la Mancha (Cuenca, Spain) in 2002, workshops at Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (France) in 2001, and at the Gallery of Miskolc (Hungary) in 2004.
Since 2004 she works as an art director and illustrator at DSG (Bucharest), a visual effects and animation studio.

Solo Exhibitions

2003 – RalucaPopaAttached, Atas Gallery, Cluj-Napoca
2002 – Saluda, personal intervention in the public space of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cuenca

This exhibition was made possible through a Ratiu Foundation grant.