All posts tagged “samizdat

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Chuck Norris vs. Communism, Ilinca Calugareanu (2015)

Photography by Kev WilliamsSweet and satisfying documentary about the underground market in western movies on VHS tapes during the last throes of the CeauČ™escu regime in Romania, when state censorship and secret police surveillance were at their Orwellian zenith. Irina Margareta Nistor is our unlikely heroine. A mild-mannered translator of state television programs by day, by night she dubbed into Romanian every triumph and every dog to come out of Hollywood in the 1980’s, over 3000 banned films all told. Everyone in Romania knew her voice, but none her face. Great story.