A fost ca-n filme by Liviu Tofan

A fost ca-n filme [It was like in the movies] by Liviu Tofan and Stejarel Olaru, is one of the books I bought on my trip to Romania earlier this year. Because it is in Romanian I don’t think any of my readers would be able to read, if they wanted to. That’s actually a shame because the book is so interesting.
I saw the book on Museum of Communism’s Instagram page. The museum is in Bucharest. I was curious and wanted to know more, so I was delighted when I saw it available at an iconic bookshop. It is a short book, which also includes 4 lists of movies taking a few pages each and at the end there are appendixes with documents. It is a good read, worth the time.

The style is journalistic and that makes it a delight to read. In the book the well known Romanian translator, Irina Margareta Nistor, is mentioned many times, obviously. She was the one who dubbed thousands of movies from US (mostly) and France. But the book is focused on Teodor Zamfir, seeming more of a biography at times. He had a clandestine business during the later part of the communist regime. This involved copying movies on videotapes. It was managed and closely controlled by the Securitate [Romanian Secret Service, similar to the KGB in the soviet union].

The tapes were bought or stolen from abroad and copied. Initially the state allowed for videos to be shown in places like operas and theatres. A translator would translate at the same time the movie was shown. In mid-1980s things changed. The videos were no longer allowed to be shown in the theatres, there were only 2 hours of TV transmission each day with brainwashing propaganda depicting the amazing supreme leader. This led to a boom in the amount of video cassettes being sold on the black market.

Teodor Zamfir was the one who was producing hundreds of these cassettes each day. Irina Margareta Nistor was translating up to 5 movies a day. While the connections with Securitate are not proven by the authors, that is also because there wouldn’t have been a real trace in the documents. Zamfir had a car with special licence [used by people in places of authority, such as parliamentarians], owned 2 properties in Romania, and was travelling abroad. This by itself makes it clear that he was in fact working with/for them, otherwise none of this could have been possible. In Romania at that point basically everybody rented, so owning 2 cars and 2 properties was a possibility only for those linked to Securitate. It is such an interesting story. Hopefully it will be translated in English.

A fost ca-n filme by Liviu Tofan and Stejarel Olaru

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My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Editura Omnium
Year it was published: 2024
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): History
Pages: 191
Language: Romanian

About the author: Liviu Tofan studied philology (specializing in German-English) at the University of Bucharest. In 1973 he emigrated to Germany. He was initially a news editor, then from 1980 he was the head of the news department, the news bulletins being the most watched program of the station. He later became deputy director of the Romanian section.
After the 1989 Revolution, starting in 1991, he headed the station’s Romanian bureau. In 1994, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty decided to move its headquarters from Munich to Prague, and Tofan decided to live in Romania. Since 2008 he has been director of the Romanian Institute of Recent History (IRIR).

Stejarel Olaru is a Romanian historian, writer, researcher, and former radio and TV broadcaster. He was National Security Advisor for the Romanian Prime Minister (2006-2008), Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2013-2014) and General Director of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (2005-2010). He has published multiple books on the modern history of Romania and the history of the Romanian intelligence services.
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