In my last post today I would like to wish all students succes and good luck on our exam. I need to admit it was a huge pleasure to know you at least a little not only in real life, but also from your blogs, I really appreciate this exchange of thoughts. I hope you could also find out something from my posts, especially about Romania and to "live" with me some kind of spiritual journey. ;) And now the exams are coming... 

;)

Today I would like to tell you about our event (organized by Romanian philology), which took place on 1 June 2015. The name of this event was “The summer poetry evening”. The idea of this evening was that everybody could come with his favorite poem, in any language, and read it for us. However, the poems have been reading in many different languages, for example Welsh, Finnish, Irish, English, Italian, Swedish and Romanian. The atmosphere was absolutely fabulous and I hope we will organize next year a similar event. Because I think the biggest pleasure is to share with another people your “state” in which we may find ourselves thanks to the creation: the art, the poetry, and so on. I share with you some photos.:) 

The pattern of my life

This post will be very exceptional for me as a person I will be talking here about was one of a kind. Not long ago we were talking in class about our model in life, I didn't manage to say something about her in the way that I would like, that's why I need to write it here. 

Without any doubts, my model in life is my grandmother, Apolonia Roszkiewicz. When she was ninetheen years old erupted the Second World War. She escaped alive from it, but she and her family left without nothing, even without boots. After that she worked three years in a German camp. When she was twenty five she met my grandfather"at the party" (my grandpa played for her the violin:). After that they seen each other three times, they married and they spent together sixty years.   

Now when she's not anymore with me I came to understand what exacly was so exceptional in her. She always wanted to give at heart so much goodness everybody, by her positive attitude to life, by her smile, by her respect for the other people. Even she didn't finish school she was so curious of the world and she never complained the life. She is not with me but I hope her's big part is in me and this allows me to go through life with values that she taught me. 

P.S. I'm sorry it's so non-objectiv post, but it was very important for me to write about her. And that's the song for her...

What have in common hedgehog and god?

Like I already sad, I would like this blog was primaly devoted to Romanian culture. That's why in this post I will present you one of Romanian legends- about hedgehog and god. :) Moreover, at this point it's worth to emphasize that in Romanian culture exist many legend from the various fields, especially cosmogonic legends, in which the world was created not only by god but also by the devil. In this legends animals play a significant role as well. I will not hide I'm passioned with this legends because for me it's something rooted in Romanian tradition, usually an oral tradition. Very often people have no clue that with the coming of modernism we have broken the relation with nature, values and especially with tradition. 

The legend entitled hedgehog and god says that god has created the world as a ball and then he has spread it like a pie. But god was helpless, he couldn't create himself mountains, springs and rivers. The God went for help to the hedgehog and asked him: "So, what do you think... Have I created a beautiful world?" The hedgehog replied: "Yes, of course you do, but it's doesn't matter if people will not be able to live on it.". "Do what you want"- sad God. Then the hedgehog jumped under the ground and digging little by little he has been creating mountains, springs and rivers. As a reward god gave the hedgehog spines on his body and therefore hedgehogs have spines. :)

Source: datinile si credintele poporului roman. 

Romanian films- Part two

Beyond the Hills (2012) - Cristian Mungiu’s return after winning the Palme d’Or for 4 Months… is an equally brilliant drama set in an Orthodox monastery standing on the hills of northern Romania. The real-life premise from which it was inspired sounds like tabloid fodder and it is easy to imagine another director turning this into something utterly exploitative. At the order of a convent’s priest, a young novice nun was bound to a cross in the hope of exorcising demons. 

In the hands of Mungiu, the fictionalised account turns into a slow, rigorously executed drama, made up of long takes and two and a half hours worth of judgement’s deferral. If the film has anything to say about the case, it is that once more, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Child’s Pose (2013) - Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose went back home with a Golden Bear from Berlin. It is the first film fully deserving the label of a thriller to come out of the New Wave. The pacing is truly gripping but it is a far more intimate and intelligent piece of work than what we often expect from the genre. For a good deal of Romanian films on this list, bureaucratic corruption is often in the backdrop, casting its long shadow. Unlike none of them, here we are at the heart of it, and it’s a nightmarish upper-middle class family affair.

If you would like to watch more Romanian films I recomand you to watch The rest is Silence, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Tuesday, After Christmas or Aferim. 

Romanian films- First part

In case some were still in doubt back it 2007, Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was the definite sign that the Wave had arrived and that it was soaring high. The film went on to receive wide distribution in over 60 countries and made numerous international critics’ top ten lists for both the years 2007 and 2008. It has been read as a critique of the Ceausescu regime and as taking some stance or other in relation to abortion. Mungiu uses one long take per scene, the position and the panning movements of the hand held camera are crucial to the film’s heightened sense of naturalism. The dialogues are tense but the drama is in the silences.

Another very interesting Romanian film is The Way I Spent the End of the World (2006). Catalin Mitulescu’s short film Trafic (2004) was one of the first Romanian productions to be prized in Cannes. His feature follow-up is a bittersweet and gentle story which follows a family’s aspirations up to, and just after, the fall of the dictatorship. Even though the downfall of the regime may be an unsurprising backdrop, it celebrates an innocence that is hard to come by in this family of Romanian movies. Catalin Mitulescu’s short film Trafic (2004) was one of the first Romanian productions to be prized in Cannes. His feature follow-up is a bittersweet and gentle story which follows a family’s aspirations up to, and just after, the fall of the dictatorship. Even though the downfall of the regime may be an unsurprising backdrop, it celebrates an innocence that is hard to come by in this family of Romanian movies.

I gave you here two examples of films which are settled  in communism landscape. In another part I will propose few examples of films which are not typical for Romania and its history. :) 

Source: cinema.ro 

How much do you know about Romanian films? ;)

First of all I need to emphasize I have chosen this subject because I think Romanian films are unappreciated in the environment of cinematography. Not many people know that the Romanian movies after 1989 won many international awards at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, etc.

An excellent application with regard to the Romanian films has Freud's theory: suppression and release. Before ’89 the Romanian culture was in a complete isolation from another part of Europe (suppression), but after ’89 and thanks the regime change the Romanian culture “was released”. That’s why we can talk about “New Wave” in Romanian cinematography, which began approximately in 2005.

Romanian directors shared the same background, having acquired field experience working for the European productions shooting in Romania due to the cheap labor force. Recognizable for their minimalist filmmaking, which was often due to scarce resources, they are faithful to their country and obsessed with authenticity. The films below all share a preoccupation with Romanian identity and the way in which their country is moving on after the years of dictatorship.

Because many of the Romanian movies have become a blockbuster, in other posts I will try to focus (in my opinion) on the most valuable films in Romanian cinematography. 

:)

The man who is a siren :D

                                 


It goes without saying that when you were a child you watched the little Mermaid. But what would you say if this story would be nowadays a role model for some people?


http://wtkplay.pl/video-id-17656-facet_syrena

Today I would like to present you a men who invented that he will become a siren! 

Honestly, my first reaction to this film was to burst out laughing... But after that I started to thinking, if he only makes a fool of himself and he makes a fuss or it's something that has really huge meaning to him. However, I guess it is world apart from the his real life is. I'm not going to judge anybody, I just think it's just really controversial topic in our modern society: the liberty, Maybe it's seems quite funny, but after I watched it I became to understand I need to come to terms with "today's fashion" and there must be some sort of give-and-take with myself. :) But what you think about it? What do you think about the limits of freedom in Poland and in general? 

The best jockes on April Fool's day

I strongly believe there don't exist people who don't like April Fool's day (maybe except those with whom we practic jockes ;). On no other day you are “legally” allowed to play jokes and pranks on your friends and family. 

Today I would like to present you my favourite jockes. The first one is the spaghetti tree hoax is a famous 3-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama. link

In 1998 Burger King advertised "Whopper for left-handed" or a sandwich with the components offset with 180 degrees with respect to the right-handed version. The new burger gained a huge popularity. :D 

In 1998. Newsletter entitled "New Mexicans for Science and Reason" announced that authorities of Alabama  decided to change the value of pi to the "Biblical value of 3.0". According to the government at the head of Leonard Lee Lawson, the journalists argued that the new constant value of Pi is not 3.141592653589793 etc. etc., but is consistent with the Bible. 

And what are your favourite jockes? :)

Source: polityka.pl

 

Mărțișor - one of the most representative of Romania's traditions

The Martisor, a spring token, a tiny adornment tied with a red and white entwined cord presented on March 1, is one of the most representative Romanian traditions also adopted in towns and cities, roots back 8,000 years, when people use to presented each others red and white pebbles in a string. Martisor a genuine Romanian holiday celebrates the arrival of spring. Young ladies and women dear to us are presented these spring tokens on March 1, the Martisor day. It is believed to bring joy and good luck. In Bukovina (north-eastern Romanian province) there are men who receive martisor. It is a red and white entwined cord, the red one symbolises the winter and the white one the spring, which other symbols of good luck such as a three-leafed clove, chimney sweeper or a heart are tied by.

I would like to invite you to participate at the workshop which will held place on 13 March, 2015 by Romanian Students's Cicrle. You can made with us a traditional ornament and in the same time to know what is the legend that stands behind it... ;) 

Discover the true face of Romania in 8 minutes...

Recently I came to the conclusion that even if I would do my best on this blog I'm not able to tell you my all stories and important things about Romania. That's why in this post I attach especially to you the presentation prepared from my pictures, which were taken during my trips to Romania. One of my favourites poets, Fernando Pessoa, wrote that "the real beauty is something that we can't describe in words and something that soothe us". That was my first ecounter with Romania: a real, pure beauty, some kind of mistery and in the same time simplicity. As a metter of fact, I've never took Romania for garanted, it came to me little by little... Of course, at first sight Romania may to appear a poor country, in which there are no perspectives. However, I think everybody should have a first-hand experience what Romania means, without assessment and stereotypes.  Now I know that for all the tea in China I wouldn't to do nothing else in my life, because it's something that changes your life like a thunder. :) Enjoy it! 
P.S. Unfortunately I couldn't made it in better quality, but if you won't enlarge it it should be ok :D  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyvr2molEI&feature=youtu.be

Video sources: Tiara- Ielele, Maria Raducanu- Oh, Lord, what a morning!

The fear - Part II, but still very interesting :)

Today I wouldn't write anything, because I found very, very interesting speech. The relationship of fear and imagination, the fear in the literature and thorough analysis of fear- that's all you can finde in speech with fiction novelist Karen Thompson Walker. If tou want to see the fear from completely another point of view, you should necessarily watch it. Only 11 minutes of this speech... :)

                       

http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us#t-801us#t-801

Something about the biggest fear...

      The last subject of our lectures were phobias and fear. I thing the biggest phobia for everyone is the death because we have no influence on it. As we know, the concept of the death changes all the time, because it's the element of the culture in which we live. But did you ever wonder what was the perception of death in Polish folk cultre? For sure you don't because currently the death became something rational, which is not related with any symbols. 

       In the past in Poland people believed that superior foreces could give poeple the signs of about the death of a family member or a neighbor. Under superior forces people understood widely defined nature: plants, animals, dreams and superstition inherited from generation to generation. When somebody was deathly ill and was lying in the house, then all the doors and windows have been opened  for to facilitate the departure of his soul.  People has been putting all the chairs upside down because they didn't want to death soul stay at home. The coffin has been exposed in front of the house to inform the neighbors about the death. It's very interesting for me because I understand death in a different way. For me it is some kind of mystery which in fact creates the sense of our lives. And what do you think about it? ;) 

Source: Jankowska B., Komentarze do Polskiego Atlasu Etnograficznego, Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze, Wrocław 1999.