Interview of Anca Damian, Romania Libera, 22 September 2010, taken by Gabriele
Lupu
Anca Damian is the Director behind an animated documentary about the tragic case
of Claudiu Crulic, a Romanian citizen who died in a Polish prison.
The case of 33 year-old Romanian citizen Claudiu Crulic, who died on January 18th
2008 after a long hunger strike in a Warsaw prison, shocked the world. Crulic
protested against his arrest but did not get any assistance from the Romanian
Consulate – he ended up alone and completely abandoned. However, Claudiu has
now become a character in Anca Damian’s cinematic re-telling of his story, the
narrator of his own death, with Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov taking on the role (or
rather, the voice) of Crulic. Anca Damian speaks to Romanian newspaper România
liberă about the way she chose to turn one man’s tragedy in an animated
documentary.
How did you get the idea of turning Claudiu’s life into a film?
Claudiu Crulic’s story has always fascinated me, especially his death: he could see
his body leaving this world with each passing day, while his soul was still there. The
thing is that when I was travelling in festivals with my film “Crossing Dates”, I
happened to see “Hunger", a great film on the same theme. This story took place an
Irish prison, but it was pretty similar: a hunger strike followed by a tragic death. I was
put off and felt like giving up the project. “Hunger" was a great film, so somehow I felt
that mine was now redundant. Still, I couldn’t help continuing the research, even if it
looked pretty impossible at the time. I had to face a lot of circumspection and hostility
on both Romanian and Polish sides and also had to track down information in a
country whose language I did not speak. The story was sad itself, so it all felt like a
burden for me. But I thought it was my duty to actually make it. I would have certainly
felt guilty (don’t know exactly why) to give up the project from a desire to make my
life easier.
“Moldavians have this adorable self-ironic rhetoric"
It’s pretty surprising that you chose to make an animated documentary on this
topic, instead of a classical one. Why this choice?
First I got the idea of creating a docu-drama with a fictive journalist who would
interact with real characters who witnessed Crulic’s drama. Claudiu was a good
excuse to analyze the deviations of our so called 21st century ‘civilization’, when
people passively witness someone’s slow death and do nothing to prevent it. It
happened many times in history, in different contexts. But what was interesting for
me was to keep the details of Claudiu’s story completely unknown, like an
anonymous abyss that the people around it would turn their backs on, fearing they
themselves would fall in it.
The idea of doing an animation allowed me to represent this abyss. Animation gives
you a lot of freedom, so I took advantage of its tools. It sort of justified itself, really:
how else would you make a dead person narrate his own story? I didn’t give up the
idea of the journalist though, I kept it for a feature film I am currently writing with my
colleague Bogdan Mustaţă.
Despite the tragic story, your character narrates his life with a lot of humor and
compassion. I, as a viewer, didn’t feel the urge to go out and break the
windows of a Romanian Consulate after seeing the film. So, in the end, what is
the message?
I believe in complex feelings. “Laughing and crying” is a much stronger emotion than
crying alone. Besides, if the film would have stuck to the drama, it would have
become unbearable to watch. Claudiu Crulic came from Dorohoi, in Moldavia, and
Moldavians have this adorable self-ironic rhetoric, which probably comes from their
wisdom. How else could Claudiu narrate such a tragic story if not by being detached
and ironical? I don’t believe in anger. I wouldn’t want someone to get the urge to
break windows after seeing my film. But I do want the ones behind those windows to
admit their guilt, at least towards themselves if not publicly. A cathartic guilt.
The film should be like a play: I want people to enjoy it, to laugh and cry, and then…
to get better. Or at least to wish they were better.
How did you track down Vlad Ivanov, with his wonderful Moldavian accent, for
Crulic’s voice?
Vlad comes from Botoşani, a neighboring town to Dorohoi. And he’s also an
exceptional actor. When I sent him the text he was filming something in Spain. I
heard him read the text and I knew at once that he was the man for Claudiu Crulic.
He actually confessed to me that he did feel like he was Claudiu.
The financing of the project was pretty difficult. Do you think there were some
political reasons why your film didn’t get the right support?
Nowadays decisions have economic, not political reasons. It’s easy to see that
politics is just a mask for economic interests? And you can easily see through the
mask. From a political point of view, I think the film should have been immediately
financed. A Romanian citizen died when under arrest in another country, the Minister
of External Affairs resigned from his post. Politically speaking, the topic was more
than eligible. The problem is that I belong to a minority in Romanian cinema, which is
predominantly macho. After all these years of working as a director and DOP, I think
I’m not wrong to say that there’s a lot of misogyny in our small world. Like I said, I
represent a minority and I constantly had to face this process of ‘feudal’ financing in
Romanian cinema. But I still believe this film will have its own way and the amount of
energy I invested in it will push it forward. Good wins. “All the ladies in the world
knows that good always wins”, to quote the Romanian singer Tamango.
Going in a hunger strike to prove your innocence is pretty extreme - and rare nowadays. Why do you think Claudiu Crulic’s case went unnoticed at the time,
and why did he have to die to get his story told?
Probably the main reason was that it all happened during detention. Maybe you, like
me, see this as an act of rare heroism, but I met people who thought it was just his
own fault – ‘why on earth didn’t he eat and choose to live?’ This probably means “he
was stupid”, “he deserved it”, “he was a thief”, “he had a penal record” etc. Indeed,
Claudiu had been arrested previously in Poland, twice in fact, but the way the truth
gets distorted is absolutely hallucinatory! He was a human being, for God’s sake,
regardless of whether he was stealing or not! Guilty people, please step to the left!
Innocent people, please step to the right! It doesn’t work like that, if only it were so
easy… This man wanted to be heard and his only weapon was his own body. He did
need help. The only people who saw it like that were the doctors in the hospital
where he taken (only 16 hours before death), and Malgorzata Nocun, the journalist
who discovered the case. Everybody else was either afraid or completely indifferent.
And the diplomats also tried to keep the case quiet, so we only found out when it
was too late.
Crulic was a Romanian immigrant. Is an immigrant, especially a Romanian,
regarded as a second-class citizen?
Have you ever seen a strawberry picker when they come back home after the work
season? They all look worn out, sad and hopeless. Of course some of them abuse
their presence abroad and steal, but even their case is pretty sad if you ask me. I
totally sympathize with them.
Did you have access to Polish police and magistracy files in the research
phase?
Yes, they did send photocopies and gave me the right to use them in the
documentary.
Are you totally persuaded by Crulic’s innocence?
In this last case from 10th of September 2007, yes, I believe he was innocent.
Romanian cinema, especially the new wave, deals with a lot of topics that the
authorities tend to ignore. Do you see art as a sort of ‘process’ that eventually
brings people to face their own guilt and makes them pay one way or another
for their incompetence or ignorance?
We all end up paying for our own thoughts or deeds. But it’s usually much easier to
expose other people’s guilt than our own. I believe art should compensate for our
mistakes and bring back a sense of normality, humanity and compassion.