The historical-biographical film: destinies and personalities

Abstract

The history of national cinema shows that the evolution of non-fiction biographical film began with subjects dedicated to prominent personalities. These were included in the film magazine “Soviet Moldova” and in the almanac “Life in pictures”. In 1961, the first historical-biographical film “The Legendary Brigade Commander”- a eulogy to Grigore Kotovski (director A. Litvin) appeared at the “Moldova-film” studio, followed by other films dedicated to the heroes of the times: Pavel Tkacenko, Elena Sârbu, Tamara Cruciok, which were dominated by a pronounced propagandistic character. A new level of national historical-biographical film can be noticed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the filmmakers: Emil Loteanu (“Academician Tarasevici”), Andrei Buruiană (“Ştefan Neaga”), Vlad Druc (“Ion Creangă”) made their debut. Yet, the idea of biography especially predominates in the creation of Anatol Codru, who played a significant role in the affirmation stage of this kind of nonfiction film, bringing through his films, “Alexandru Plămădeală”, “Alexei Şciusev”, “Dimitrie Cantemir”,”Vasile Alecsandri” a new breath in the context of the films made before him. He imposed himself through a poetic-philosophical vision on the destinies and the creation of the personalities, who contributed to the spiritual prosperity of the nation.