Bless You, Prison

Customer Reviews:

Have Faith.......2007-06-16

Certain directors were born to direct certain stories. For example, many people feel Roman Polanski was the correct choice to direct "The Pianist". Polanski's own life and past experiences enabled him to bring something more personal to the story than someone else. Many people feel only Luchino Visconti could have directed "The Leopard" or Scorsese and "GoodFellas", Coppola and "The Godfather". These films go hand and hand with the directors because the films are so strong a reflection of the director's personality that often we wonder where does line seperate between director and film. How autobiographical is the story? How much of their own experiences is the director bringing to the table?

Among this list of films and directors I'd like to nominate one more. "Bless You, Prison (Binecuvantata fii, inchisoare)" and director Nicolae Margineanu. Margineanu, like all directors, has very distinctive themes he likes to work with. His films are usually about Romania's rule under communism. They deal with social injustice and corruption. Of all the films I have seen from Margineanu this one best sums up his career. It is a cumulation of everything he has been trying to do. This is his masterpiece.

The film is based on a true story. It is an adaptation of Nicole Valery-Grossu's autobiography "Benie Soise-tu, Prison". In the film Maria Ploae (who has acted in several Margineanu films including "The Famous Paparazzo" and "Somewhere in the East") plays Nicoleta, a woman who is arrested for opposing Stalin. At first Nicoleta has no clue what is going on. She is told she will return shortly after police come to pick her up. She is later blindfolded and sent to a cell. She spends years there and is tortured. But through is all Nicoleta finds herself going through a spiritual awakening. Through the misery that her life has become she has managed to find hope and peace.

The film is not preachy or overly sentimental. Margineanu shoots the film as a documentary. Nothing is glamorized in the film. The film reminds me of a journal. We've heard the term "novel on film", well this is a "journal on film". Everything that happens in this movie we totally accept as truth. As awful as the events depicted in the film are, it all seems true.

Many scenes in the film I found difficult to watch. Currently we have heard a lot of talk about the use in torture and what is acceptable in our war on terror. There are torture scenes in this film that are quite frankly, the most gruesome I have ever seen. There is no blood, the violence isn't even really that extreme when you compare it to what you see in horror films where people's head are being chopped off, but I was struck by the torture scenes because of their intensity. The camera doesn't break away. We are forced to watch this, like it or not.

Films such as this often hit me on a personal level. My grandparents, on both sides of my family, lived through communist era in Hungary and would tell me stories growing up. After a failed revolution in 1956 many of my cousins tried to leave Hungary but the communist government killed them, thus scaring my remaining relatives into staying in Hungary. So on many levels I can relate to stories such as the one in "Bless You, Prison". This period in time was a dark one for many many people, including those in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Sadly though the film has not earned the reputation it deserves. It did win an awards at the Montreal World Film Festival, one of them for "Best Artistic Contribution" and won Ploae a "Best Actress" award at the Romanian Union of Filmmakers but why didn't the country nominate it as their official entry for the Oscars? Was it even released in America? If films such as "Schindler's List", "The Pianist" and last year's Hungarian film "Fateless" could have found audiences and praise surely a film such as this one could have too. And yes, the film is every bit as good as the other's mentioned.

Hopefully many more people will make an effort to see this film. It one of the great modern films I have seen. If you only see one Margineanu film (and I do feel you shouldn't stop at one) it should be this!

Bottom-line: The crowning achievement of filmmaker Nicolae Magineanu's career. A masterpiece which perfectly sums up what all his other films have been about. One of the great modern films of our times.

Powerful testimony of faith triumphing over torture, prison & oppression.......2005-10-17

This tale of how a female political activitist, imprisoned as Romania turns communist, finds God in the midst of torture, harsh prison conditions, and degradation is somber, yet inspiring. Bless You Prison is serious fare, that documents injustice and the fragility of our supposedly civilized world, at a deliberate, unhurried pace. Those wishing to be entertained should look elsewhere. However, for those who wish to see that hope can be found in the worst of circumstances if one seeks the eternal, this will prove a film not to be forgotten.

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