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Courtesy of Sundance International Film Festival

A winning debut doc celebrating Hollywood's cultural impact.

Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema Documentary Competition

Ilinca Calugareanu

Movies really do change the world in Ilinca Calugareanu's Chuck Norris Vs. Communism, a we-were-there account of how bootlegs of Hollywood movies inspired citizens of Ceaucescu's Romania to dream of life beyond the Iron Curtain and, eventually, rise up for it. The film's message is a flattering one for an industry audience, even if many Sundancers would rather distance themselves from the lowest-common-denominator fare celebrated here. But Calugareanu's presentation, which evocatively braids reenacted storylines with present-day interviews, is skillful enough to win over viewers with no professional investment in cultural imperialism. While the focus on Romania may sound limiting, the film's narrative is broadly applicable and entertainingly told; it should fare well in the nonfiction marketplace.

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If not for commercial considerations, the doc should really be titled Irina NistorVs. Communism, as we quickly learn that this young woman's voice was synonymous throughout Romania with American movies. Though she worked during the day as a translator in a censor's office, Nistor's passion was her secret job, doing real-time dubbing for entrepreneur Teodor Zamfir, who smuggled movies across the border with Hungary. Translating seven, sometimes as many as ten movies in a row from English into Romanian, she dubbed all the film's characters (male and female) in a thin, high voice. Calugareanu's interviewees laughingly recall the euphemisms she'd use for profanity or sex talk (we see some hilarious examples), but their fondness for a woman they never got to see is clear.

The film cannily withholds Nistor and Zamfir from us (along with Mircea Cojocaru, a backup translator), using only their voices to narrate dramatic reenactments. We watch Zamfir bribe border guards; see an operation where more than three hundred VHS decks duplicated tapes at a time; go nervously with Irina to her day job, where officials hinted they knew what she was up to.

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'Chuck Norris Vs. Communism': Sundance Review

It takes a while sometimes a very long while but the nations capital eventually gets around to dealing with the truly ugly.

The National Arts Centre, a centennial-year project completed in 1969, is about to begin a $110-million facelift that will, among other things, turn the hideous block of a building around to face the right way toward the street and Parliament Hill.

Another centennial project was to commission a statue to honour former prime minister Arthur Meighen. When another former PM, John Diefenbaker, saw what the artist had created, he dismissed it as a diabolical creature. Dief thought the depiction of Meighen might well be the greatest monstrosity ever produced a mixture of Ichabod Crane and Daddy Longlegs.

Meighens wife, Isabel, was so put off that she wanted nothing to do with it. For 20 years the statue was hidden away, stored in a concrete vault near the Rideau Canal, until finally it was shipped off to Meighens hometown, St. Marys, Ont., where it stands today as a monument to a local boy who made good in life, if less so in art.

Now, all of Ottawa is talking about another looming disaster a memorial to the Victims of Communism that is about to take over a parcel of land between the Supreme Court of Canada and the National Library, a small park-like oasis along Wellington Street where, this past week, there were only squirrel tracks to be found in the fresh-fallen snow.

That land is said to be worth $1-million. For nearly a century it had been earmarked as the site of a new federal court, but has now been handed over for the memorial, along with a pledge of $3-million to help pay for the $5-million project the remainder to be raised by a charity group called Tribute to Liberty.

Canada is, of course, the recognized world leader in apologies. Only a fool would deny that millions have been the tragic victims of communism, but that number pales, surely, in comparison with the victims of capitalism. If we agree to date communism to the Russian Revolution of 1917 feel free to argue the point the dating of capitalisms crimes would have to extend back beyond the Crusades and the spice wars to the very first deal that went badly sour.

Regardless of that, and despite the fact that there is already a most-impressive and expensive Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, this new memorial in Ottawa is going ahead.

But it certainly isnt going smoothly. Back in September, even before the final design had been selected from among the five competitors, Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin felt compelled to write to Public Works to share some concerns.

In the letter obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, the Chief Justice reminded Public Works that the site had long been designated as part of the judicial precinct, and she raised the rather valid point that such a memorial could send the wrong message within the judicial precinct, unintentionally conveying a sense of bleakness and brutalism that is inconsistent with a space dedicated to the administration of justice.

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New Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa a looming disaster

Fri Jan 30 19:14:47 EST 2015

The film is influenced director Ilinia Calugareanu's own experiences growing up in Romania, yet speaks to anyone who has ever glimpsed a broader, less restrictive world through a story.

courtesy of the Sundance Institute Ilinica Calugareanu

Many of us have fond memories of parents and children gathered around the VCR to watch a rented movie on a Friday night. Before the fall of the Iron Curtain, however, Romanian families could only get their VHS tapes on the black market, making American action icon Chuck Norris a symbol of freedom and rebellion not only on-screen but in real life. These illicit movie-marathons are at the heart of Olinica Calugareanu's "Chuck Norris vs. Communism."

In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look.A black-market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the people and sparked a revolution.

I was 6 years old in 1986 and my parents found a way to borrow a VCR. They invited all their friends over and all night they watched grainy VHS tapes of American films. I remember all the movies I watched and especially how I felt when I stepped into the living room. It was like walking into a different dimension a secret, magical and free world. There were millions of other Romanians who secretly watched films like we did. We all grew up with the feeling that Chuck Norris was more real than the reality presented to us in the propaganda news. Those tapes and their heroes changed a whole generation. So for us, this film is about the magic of film and the power it has to change our lives. One of the biggest threads for me is about the shared experience of watching films in a dangerous and underground space. Movies meant so much more to the people in this film; it was a completely different viewing experience than the one we can relate to today. It is about the way films leave a mark on your life to the point of being able to taste that experience, even after decades have passed.

I am originally Romanian, but now I'm based in London where I started a production company with my sister and producer Mara Adina. I fell in love with telling stories about people from early on, which made me embark on a journey that took me from anthropology to ethnographic filmmaking, to working as a film editor and now directing my first feature, "Chuck Norris vs Communism."

The first challenge was finding the best way to tell the story. Dont let this story down is the sentence that stayed with me throughout the process. It was a journey of trying and failing. For quite some time, the main quest was finding the central character. After which, the question of should we go with animation or re-enactments? became central. We were constantly guided by the desire to create a cinematic experience, a film that would reach as many people as possible despite the language barrier.

courtesy of the Sundance Institute 'Chuck Norris vs. Communism'

I hope that Chuck Norris vs Communism will take the audience at Sundance back to the magical moments when they first fell in love with film.

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HUNGARY AND COMMUNISM; EASTERN EUROPE IN CHANGE 1965
This classroom film includesvintage historical footage shot in Hungary and discusses the nation of Hungary as it was from its pre-Communistic state to the Co...

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HUNGARY AND COMMUNISM; EASTERN EUROPE IN CHANGE 1965 - Video

In The Can: Chuck Norris v. Communism
Director llinca Calugareanu and Producer Mara Adina talk about their film "Chuck Norris v. Communism" on In The Can at Sundance 2015. --- Park City Televisio...

By: Park City Television

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In The Can: Chuck Norris v. Communism - Video