As an irony of fate, on December the 1-st, when in Bucharest the National Day overlaps with the electoral campaign that was close to the finishing line, the Arte channel presented Alexandru Sololomon’s documentary Kapitalisme, notre recette secrète./ Capitalism, our secret recipe. The “big names” of the affluent, used as ammunition in the presidential battle, become the central characters of this fascinating story about who made and how he made a lot of money after the revolution. The premise of Solomon’s documentary is very inspired and provocative: What will Ceaușescu see and feel if he returned after 20 years in the post-Decembrist Romania? A phantom is thus invited to contemplate his followers, collaborators and what has endured of his “oeuvre”.
The documentary manages to image a new world from a handful of details. The director doesn’t need to film endless and adorned interiors. The protagonists’ postures express a lot and their cynicism defies and fascinates at the same time. Stringed out on a thread, the success recipes of Dan Voiculescu, Ioan Niculaie, George Pădure have in common the same ingredient: the membership, in one way or the other, to the communist nomenclature. Dinu Patriciu, from the architecture office he had initially opened, ended up buying the Vega and Rompetrol refinery. His wealth is said to have been amassed by financial speculation and from the profitable business deals with the state. The only one who applied his personal recipe for success is Dan Diaconescu. With his apartment television, he speculated to the topmost extent the Romanians’ frustrations, he fed their illusion that “somebody, finally, does something for them”, he offers the scandal on a slice of bread and tells them things they cannot hear anywhere else. After you see the documentary, the answers of the protagonist hunt you. For example, Ioan Niculaie, a young Security member in ’89, considers that it was as naturally as possible, while having all the necessary support, to have profitable trades within the Romanian capitalism. As if it were not clear enough, the protagonists of the movie seem to underline the extraordinary qualities and opportunities they were given during the Revolution. George Pădure, alias Gepa Center, was the proprietor of the first store selling electronic products in Bucharest, he went to Belgium before ‘89( after he put his parent to sleep with a syrup).He returned in the ’90 with 4 million dollars in his pocket. Do you know why? Because the name Pădure was a valuable capital abroad, due to the fact that he was the son of a serious Romanian nomenclator. Dan Voiculescu, framed in his palace by paintings of himself, talks about the differences, the external commerce and Security, and about his monthly salary of 5000$ that he got during the Communist Regime. They hypnotize you; they have a power aura around them that makes them grin in a certain manner.
After Solomon’s movie I have no doubt that there is a species of Romanian capitalism that one can recognize by its smell and if it is to disappear under I don’t know what miracle, it should be stuffed and displayed at Antipa and studied. As a spectator you have no chance but remain stiffed on the chair. You wonder if the recent history didn’t swallow everybody like a huge wale. What we live isn’t perhaps what we imagine? And the reality never existed…
The conclusion that the author draws is that Ceaușescu would have been happy, if he had undertaken such a time travel. All the things he knew are still functional. His people have carried forward the customs and the trades of the nation. Bitter, lucid, technically impeccable Solomon’s movie talks about the uncomfortable period of the transition and about those who made money and who divided the power in Romania.
The TV version of the documentary has 50 minutes and it can be seen here:
http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/1697660,CmC=2956902,scheduleId=2927892.html
(in French).
In his extended form, of 90 minutes, it shall be probably broadcasted next year in Romania.
