Stil

Student Dima From Seventh Grade

excerpt A NIGHT OF WAKING After the dinner party we go out into the hospital courtyard. Dusk is descending. A strong smell of carbolic acid tickles our nostrils. The boys are gathering round me. I tell them: Look. Let's all go to the cemetery. What should we do there

The Last Redoubt

excerpt 2 JUNE 1877 My mother has written to me. Her letter took two weeks to reach here. A long, tender letter, such as only a mother can write. Pieces of advice and fears, events back home and thoughts about the war, and then more advice… She thinks I am still a child.

Captain Ion's Arrow

excerpt While they were rushing on horseback towards Curtea de Arges, the boy was thinking about Voiena. He could not work out if he still felt something for her. He remembered only the taste of her kisses and the hot softness of the girl's cheek, pressed to his, while

What Do Children From The Year 2007 Want To See?

Children shows producer at Romanian TV (ABC…Why?) If we were to take for granted the cartoons shown on TV channels, we should start to weep. All we see are super-heroes, hysterical girls, violence and characters permanently ready to fart or to burp. . . that's what

ABC ... Why?

click here to see more (in Romanian) Artistic director ABC. . . Why? I am quite familiar with puppets: as a stage director I have put on a few puppet shows, and at home I've got a live one. Now I am experiencing great joy: after seven years of television work, I'm

The Beginnings Of Puppet Theater

The first traces of puppets were revealed by the archeological diggings of Cucuteni, Jassy county (and later in other areas). Sites from the Neolithic (6. 000-3. 000 B. C. ) have been examined and numerous figures made of bone or clay, which were probably used for religious

Creangă And Gopo

Gopo's Little Man (see Short History - click on Scurta istorie to see movie) I have been studying the Gopo archive belonging to the National Film Archive for some years, and now the first volume goes to print. It contains only a part of the legacy left by the film genius,

Clockwork Animals

Mom and Dad weren't well-off or anything and, apart from that, the 60s offered only a limited choice of toys, at least in our neck of the woods. Back when he was working for the Maintenance Department of the Bucharest Transport Services, Dad would bring me – on Father

Exuviae

excerpt REGNUM PUERILE I was pondering, among other things, about the ways of ogres and dragons, as people were wont to talk about them so much. They were bad, they were mad, they were downright evil – and frightening, though not existing in point of fact. This must

What I Did In The Summer Holidays

excerpt  Then on another day I didnt get up to much apart from loafing around the house aimlessly and especially up in the apricot tree where dad didnt know I could climb and get away with it because what does he know? He comes home in the evening and if he plays with

Sweet Holiday Camp

School always began on September 1st and ended on the last day of May. September 1st was the first day of school and it started off with an impressive festivity. All of us, dressed-up and with flowers in our hands, went to the official square where the first bell was rung.

The Erstwhile Snows

Winters in Ramnicu Valcea were quite mild in those times, though there was plenty of snow (I guess this is the cliché of those whose childhood memories are blurred by their excessive subjectivity); anyway, they unfolded following a certain ritual: at the beginning of December