Film Review: Chuck Norris Vs. Communism (U.K./Germany/Romania 2015) (Director: Llinca Calugareanu) (Romanian & English with English Subtitles), Odeon, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Wednesday 24.06.2015, 21:00 (Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015) (European Premiere)

A title to make Bill Hicks proud! This is a film I had known I had read about, though not sure where. This documentary film tells a story of defiance from 1980's communist Romania. The film begins by detailing the extreme lengths censors went to, to try to prevent any pro-western messages getting to the people of Romania.

The film then goes on to discuss the 'underground' operations led by a Mr. Zamfir, who hired a Ms. Irina Nistor to dub full-uncensored western films for covert distribution on V.H.S. cassettes. We hear from enthusiastic people who regularly attended 'film-parties' held in peoples flats. It is made clear by them, that in an age before the internet and when state censorship was easier to manage, this was these people's vital window to a different world, and also a way of being able to tell that their government was lying to them about the west. 

Ms. Nistor already worked for the censoring state doing dubbing and voice-over when she was approached by Mr. Zamfir. She is now regarded as the second most known voice in Romania during the '80's after the leader Ceausescu. This is largely down to the proliferation of the underground video network. In '80's Romania it was forbidden to own a V.C.R. yet after a period of these underground groups spreading, there were reckoned to be 20,000 V.C.R.s in Bucharest. The film also revealed how those using this resource went as high up in the government as just below Ceausescu himself, including his son. 

The film presents a not-unreasonable argument that this underground-culture contributed towards the 1989 revolution that resulted in Ceausescu loosing power. By 1989 Ms. Nistor had dubbed over 3,000 western films for distribution. She did not just dub the action, she did all voices of all characters and also added emotion into her dubbing. She also did her own very charming form of censorship as there are words she is not comfortable translating. The film gives very humorous clips of this to demonstrate. She would also do marathon dubbing sessions where she would do up to eight or nine at a time, and once managed to do ten in a row. Ms. Nistor states that she was motivated to do this as it enabled her to see all of these (full) films for free, though also saw it as a duty, enabling her countrymen to also have the chance to decide whether they wished to engage with this entertainment or not.

The film could actually fairly be called 'docudrama'. A term I usually find wince inducing. The use of re-enactment in documentaries is something I feel has to be approached with caution. Though this film made very good use of this approach. These passages had an authenticity that made them appear as if they were actually bits of footage from the period.   

I found the film charming and moving. A tale of dignified defiance, that also helped to remind that areas of culture which we may commonly deride in the west, such as bubblegum-blockbuster-eighties-American-action cinema, may have far greater importance and influence, depending on the day-to-day context of your life. It also served to remind of how fortunate we are in the west. 

I had not engaged at all with the Edinburgh International Film Festival for the past two years. I tend to stay clear of 'features' within the festival programme as feel, if they are good enough they will go on general release anyway and also there is no way to make any judgement as to how good it may be based upon what is written about it, as the programme is 'P.R.' with no 'Critique'. I do give more attention to Documentaries as still feel they have less chance of getting a general release. Of the four documentaries I have seen in the festival this year, this is without doubt the best and I hope this does get a general release, so that this passionate and hopeful film can have a wider audience.   

Rating: 10/10.