TV Chronicle

I was watching the news one night, when all of a sudden, the announcer begins to talk about the opening of the biggest mall from Bucharest. “Another one,” I was about to say… But, I did have time. I would have been terribly mistaken, anyway…. Although it is partially finished, thousands of people that flocked in like sheep to find a place in front, when the doors will be opened, besieged the Commercial Center that I am talking about.

This time I could bet on anything, because I am certain that you cannot guess of what godfather I am talking about. Besides, the institution is as influential and as involved within the Romanian public sphere as it can be. Everybody sided with the right person, but, what I found out from Brancu’s TV show, The VIP Agent, on Antenna 2, defies all odds.

The week commenced at full speed. I entered an office where several pairs of eyes were fallowing on the big screen of a TV the capital letters writing:” The dead guy of yesterday is here with us in the studio.” on OTV evidently. I am not familiar with what happened afterwards, but it doesn’t matter.

“My name is Sylvia. This is my story”. This is the manner in which An American Crime (2007, directed by Tommy O'Haver), broadcasted on Antenna 1 Friday night and presented by Alexandru Tocilescu. It is a film about the extreme community evil, about the complicity of some violence devourers, whose other people’s sufferance brings them to the point of cannibal-children. American Crime is even more overwhelming because those who assist and those who torture are children and teenagers.

The topic of the week was without doubt the anti- rocket shield. I kept on watching the news in the hope that I might understand what was it all about. The TV presenters, as serious as possible, seemed convinced that we assist at a historic moment.