The Romanian capital will be in the spotlight at the Un Weekend à l’Est festival, from November 18 to December 1 in Paris.
Children’s voices dominate Abrasa, second translated novel by Bogdan-Alexandru Stanescu. His name was Mihai, his mother called him Kitz-Kitz or “mouse”, and in December 1989, he was 10 years old. This was the end of the dictatorship in Romania. When the execution of the Ceausescu couple was shown on the screen, he was shocked. “Yes, even if I am a child of the Revolution, for me this same Revolution coincided with the birth of Evil. I felt it from the beginning, from that dry and freezing winter, when I cowered in fear, I felt facing the spectacle of a platoon of monsters who killed Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu, my television parents (…). I don’t know anything yet about Theater of cruelty but when I read it later, Artaud’s essay immediately reminded me of the trial of the Ceausescu couple.”
