1 00:00:05,830 --> 00:00:09,940 Motto: ''The Romanian was born a poet'' Vasile Alecsandri 2 00:00:30,990 --> 00:00:32,700 Very lucky Mother Ghita was. 3 00:00:32,830 --> 00:00:37,660 Her neighbor across the way was as talkative as she. 4 00:00:43,670 --> 00:00:45,780 After her neighbor passed away, 5 00:00:45,910 --> 00:00:49,820 strange things began to happen in the house of Mother Ghita. 6 00:01:18,870 --> 00:01:20,700 From the elders Mother Ghita knew 7 00:01:20,830 --> 00:01:25,060 that malicious spirits nestle in abandoned houses. 8 00:01:25,630 --> 00:01:27,100 Ever since her neighbor died, 9 00:01:27,230 --> 00:01:32,500 a fear began to haunt her that a hideous entity had moved in. 10 00:01:35,110 --> 00:01:38,730 What didn,t Mother Ghita do to shoo away these spirits ? 11 00:01:38,830 --> 00:01:43,850 She did everything, from old women's incantations to exorcism. 12 00:01:45,230 --> 00:01:47,420 Unhappily, though, with no results. 13 00:01:47,510 --> 00:01:51,210 The cursed spirits seemed to have made themselves at home for good, 14 00:01:51,350 --> 00:01:55,050 giving her no peace night or day. 15 00:02:01,630 --> 00:02:06,300 MOTHER GHITA 16 00:02:08,830 --> 00:02:13,420 a film by Diana Deleanu 17 00:02:16,150 --> 00:02:20,860 director of photography Ion Ciucu 18 00:02:23,310 --> 00:02:28,020 edited by Cosmin Bunea 19 00:02:30,470 --> 00:02:35,140 producer Iulian Margu 20 00:02:51,830 --> 00:02:55,530 Not all of Mother Ghita,s days had been like this. 21 00:02:55,830 --> 00:02:58,980 For us to understand let us begin at the beginning. 22 00:03:04,950 --> 00:03:07,250 Mother Ghita saw a man flrst step on the moon, 23 00:03:07,310 --> 00:03:10,740 on the television at the village Cultural Centre. 24 00:03:13,630 --> 00:03:15,980 She was so impressed by what she had seen 25 00:03:16,070 --> 00:03:19,460 that immediately she uttered the following verse. 26 00:03:19,630 --> 00:03:23,740 ''Tell me moon, so far away, Did you ever think that of all the stars'' 27 00:03:23,790 --> 00:03:26,860 ''You would ever be the first to host a man ?'' 28 00:03:26,990 --> 00:03:30,140 ''I cannot tell if you are happy, I cannot tell if you are frightened'' 29 00:03:30,270 --> 00:03:34,340 ''That on your foggy soil a living man has stepped his foot.'' 30 00:03:34,510 --> 00:03:38,420 ''They did not come to master you, They did not come to rob you.'' 31 00:03:38,510 --> 00:03:43,100 ''They came to see your fields, your birds, your people, your tongue, your voice.'' 32 00:03:43,230 --> 00:03:47,260 ''To see the life your people live, the books they learn,'' 33 00:03:47,350 --> 00:03:51,780 ''What they put on their tables, what animals they breed.'' 34 00:03:54,030 --> 00:03:56,330 At that moment, by accident or by destiny, 35 00:03:56,390 --> 00:04:00,900 the Instructor of Culture for the village so happened to be there. 36 00:04:01,190 --> 00:04:07,780 Man's flrst step on lunar soil thus coincided with that of Mother Ghita on literary soil. 37 00:04:07,950 --> 00:04:12,060 Naturally, her oral poetry was naive. 38 00:04:12,110 --> 00:04:14,700 But this was not important; 39 00:04:14,750 --> 00:04:17,980 after all, no one is born educated. 40 00:04:18,150 --> 00:04:22,420 The important thing was that Mother Ghita had potential. 41 00:04:22,630 --> 00:04:26,100 The whole world listened to me, 42 00:04:26,150 --> 00:04:32,330 and now I am thinking that I was chosen by Fate. 43 00:04:33,030 --> 00:04:37,420 Doina of Otasau 44 00:04:38,990 --> 00:04:42,300 It was a great discovery and a resounding success 45 00:04:42,390 --> 00:04:45,930 for the Centre of Preservation and Guidance of Folk Customs. 46 00:04:46,070 --> 00:04:50,980 The Centre excelled in Folk Dance, Pottery and Weaving, 47 00:04:51,110 --> 00:04:54,100 but as for Peasant-Poets they were in bad shape. 48 00:04:54,190 --> 00:04:59,500 This situation came under severe criticism from the Central Cultural Commission. 49 00:04:59,590 --> 00:05:05,180 Once Mother Ghita was discovered, this dark period in Valcea,s culture ended. 50 00:05:05,310 --> 00:05:09,220 Because she had no formal training, those assigned to the destiny of culture 51 00:05:09,310 --> 00:05:13,010 placed her into the Peasant-Poet category. 52 00:05:13,070 --> 00:05:15,780 ''A mad yearning steals me in the night'' 53 00:05:15,870 --> 00:05:18,620 ''To cast the beans behind the gate.'' 54 00:05:19,030 --> 00:05:23,820 ''Three beans means great joy, Means someone will come round,'' 55 00:05:24,270 --> 00:05:26,700 ''Means I should leave my door ajar.'' 56 00:05:26,790 --> 00:05:29,780 ''I wish I could trust those beans, if only once.'' 57 00:05:30,270 --> 00:05:34,340 It was indicative of what the socialist ideology called ,,obscurantism,, 58 00:05:34,430 --> 00:05:37,220 that which what had not yet been purged from the Romanian peasant,s life 59 00:05:37,310 --> 00:05:40,660 and thus manifested richly in the works of Mother Ghita. 60 00:05:40,790 --> 00:05:45,580 That was because she was writing only about her own day-to-day life. 61 00:05:45,950 --> 00:05:50,020 History must record that her principal sources of inspiration 62 00:05:50,070 --> 00:05:53,980 were the moon, the sun, the springs, the forest. 63 00:05:54,870 --> 00:05:58,220 As the critics would later note, her poetry did not then betray 64 00:05:58,350 --> 00:06:01,060 a superior artistic conscience. 65 00:06:01,190 --> 00:06:03,570 Her new designation as Poet began to force her hand. 66 00:06:03,710 --> 00:06:05,860 If until then she had seen herself as a peasant, 67 00:06:05,990 --> 00:06:08,940 and a poet in her free time, she now understood that 68 00:06:09,070 --> 00:06:10,940 the roles had reversed themselves. 69 00:06:11,030 --> 00:06:13,020 Before she wrote for her own pleasure, 70 00:06:13,110 --> 00:06:15,100 but now she realized that she needed to pursue 71 00:06:15,230 --> 00:06:18,220 writing with a sense of duty. 72 00:06:28,150 --> 00:06:33,300 She realized she had to change, to abandon minor things 73 00:06:33,350 --> 00:06:36,580 and to focus on the great socialist themes. 74 00:06:36,870 --> 00:06:40,060 It,s true that she was carefully oriented by the instructors 75 00:06:40,150 --> 00:06:43,380 at the Centre for Guidance, Conservation and Valoriflcation of Folk Creations. 76 00:06:43,510 --> 00:06:48,740 These people were very meticulous and committed to their assignments. 77 00:06:49,550 --> 00:06:53,740 They must be credited because they had to work hard to bring her 78 00:06:53,830 --> 00:06:57,860 to a high level of revolutionary consciousness. 79 00:07:17,870 --> 00:07:21,180 Mother Ghita took part in numerous short training courses, 80 00:07:21,310 --> 00:07:24,300 for such is necessary for the revolutionary conscience 81 00:07:24,390 --> 00:07:27,060 to achieve a certain level. 82 00:07:27,190 --> 00:07:30,180 After that her poetry began to sound different, 83 00:07:30,270 --> 00:07:33,740 it began to have a message, a direction. 84 00:07:33,790 --> 00:07:37,300 We can say that the insigniflcant period of her creation was gone. 85 00:07:37,510 --> 00:07:39,020 ''My Homeland'' 86 00:07:39,190 --> 00:07:42,860 ''My homeland, ancestral land It is here I was born Romanian.'' 87 00:07:42,990 --> 00:07:46,180 ''From your undessicated springs I drink incessantly.'' 88 00:07:46,270 --> 00:07:50,260 It was not long before the pundits of Mother Ghita,s poetry appeared. 89 00:07:50,350 --> 00:07:54,420 Confronted with these uncommon works, they did not hesitate to speak 90 00:07:54,510 --> 00:07:58,050 of a phenomenon, of their rapture as before a miracle, 91 00:07:58,150 --> 00:08:02,620 to eulogize this living embodiment of the Romanian folk spirit. 92 00:08:02,750 --> 00:08:07,940 They all concurred that Mother Ghita was a flgurehead in the long-emerging 93 00:08:08,070 --> 00:08:12,700 evolution of folk creation in its creative dynamic of new values. 94 00:08:13,110 --> 00:08:22,820 ''The Voice of My Country Resounds Happy New Year'' 95 00:08:23,110 --> 00:08:32,740 ''With Good Wishes, Dear and Valued Leader The Best Son of Our People.'' 96 00:08:33,390 --> 00:08:37,420 Mother Ghita,s artistic evolution was incendiary. 97 00:08:37,670 --> 00:08:42,260 In accordance with tradition, all Party or State delegations were welcomed 98 00:08:42,390 --> 00:08:45,180 at the county border by Mother Ghita with bread and salt. 99 00:08:45,310 --> 00:08:49,900 Dressed in traditional folk costume she would present any number of flery verses. 100 00:08:49,950 --> 00:08:54,890 I went to many places. Everywhere I went from Valcea to Bucharest, 101 00:08:54,990 --> 00:09:01,780 everybody said, here is Gheorgita Maleanu, she must stay with us, and speak. 102 00:09:01,910 --> 00:09:04,140 She became a symbol of the Romanian Peasant 103 00:09:04,230 --> 00:09:07,380 toiling upon the land, but also toiling with the pen. 104 00:09:07,630 --> 00:09:11,250 Everywhere Mother Ghita went, success was guaranteed, 105 00:09:11,390 --> 00:09:13,140 no matter the event.' 106 00:09:13,230 --> 00:09:16,850 Woman,s Day, Republic Day, Romanian Communist Party Day, 107 00:09:16,950 --> 00:09:20,460 Harvest Day and so on... 108 00:09:20,590 --> 00:09:26,300 Each moment I was the center of attention. 109 00:09:26,950 --> 00:09:28,420 I was very important. 110 00:09:28,550 --> 00:09:33,900 No matter where I would go, the people would welcome me with open arms, 111 00:09:34,030 --> 00:09:38,860 and I was in the seventh heaven. 112 00:09:51,870 --> 00:09:54,500 Tlme passed, and Mother Ghita became an institution. 113 00:09:54,590 --> 00:09:58,980 She was a wife, a mother, a housekeeper, a collectivist, a folk dancer, a weaver, 114 00:09:59,070 --> 00:10:03,020 a singer and, most of all, a Peasant-Poet genius, 115 00:10:03,110 --> 00:10:06,220 as the comrades from the Ministry of Culture used to say. 116 00:10:10,030 --> 00:10:13,540 Slowly, Mother Ghita became famous beyond Valcea,s borders. 117 00:10:13,630 --> 00:10:16,860 From that moment on the institution of Mother Ghita began receiving 118 00:10:16,950 --> 00:10:20,700 signiflcant support from the authorities, 119 00:10:20,750 --> 00:10:24,500 particularly from the Choreography and Costumes Section of the Centre of Guidance 120 00:10:24,550 --> 00:10:27,260 and Preservation of Folk Creations, from the Themes and Literary Prosody Section 121 00:10:27,310 --> 00:10:32,300 of the Cultural and Social Education Committee, 122 00:10:32,350 --> 00:10:35,660 and from the Propaganda section of Valcea,s Communist Party Committee 123 00:10:35,710 --> 00:10:40,220 for public speeches and interviews in mass-media. 124 00:10:41,830 --> 00:10:45,340 She was afforded the opportunity to meet the most important people of the moment. 125 00:10:45,470 --> 00:10:50,180 I have never changed my way of speaking on stage, 126 00:10:50,270 --> 00:10:53,380 but some people envied me. 127 00:10:56,110 --> 00:11:06,300 The State Secretary was walking past, he stopped in front of me and shook my hand. 128 00:11:06,350 --> 00:11:11,780 He did this with me only. Why is this ? 129 00:11:13,630 --> 00:11:20,860 Of all the people there he stopped in front of me. 130 00:11:22,030 --> 00:11:29,100 I felt his sincere affection towards me. I needed nothing else. 131 00:11:29,190 --> 00:11:32,810 It was only during the ceremony in which the Propaganda Secretary declared 132 00:11:32,910 --> 00:11:37,180 her to be a national treasure that she started believing 133 00:11:37,270 --> 00:11:39,020 in the value of her verses. 134 00:11:39,150 --> 00:11:41,220 She represented Valcea county with great success 135 00:11:41,310 --> 00:11:43,180 in the great socialist festival of work and creation 136 00:11:43,230 --> 00:11:44,940 known as ,,Romania, We Sing of Thee,,. 137 00:11:45,030 --> 00:11:47,660 Everywhere I went I was awarded many prizes. 138 00:11:47,750 --> 00:11:54,460 The recognitions came in rapid succession; her life changed from one day to the next. 139 00:11:56,590 --> 00:12:00,020 In Bucharest I went to the Party newspaper building. 140 00:12:00,070 --> 00:12:08,940 I was greeted by the important people there. 141 00:12:14,230 --> 00:12:17,980 Even before I got there, 142 00:12:18,430 --> 00:12:28,620 they had called me ''incredible.'' 143 00:12:33,110 --> 00:12:35,380 She was now convinced of her own genius 144 00:12:35,510 --> 00:12:38,740 and recognized by the offlcials from the Offlces of Culture and Propaganda. 145 00:12:38,990 --> 00:12:42,260 Her poems were being published in all the newspapers. 146 00:12:42,390 --> 00:12:45,380 She was invited more and more to appear on television, 147 00:12:45,470 --> 00:12:47,220 to give radio interviews. 148 00:12:47,310 --> 00:12:50,500 We honor our peasants with a ''Good Morning!'' 149 00:12:50,750 --> 00:12:54,660 ''For bringing wealth to hearts And brightness to horizon.'' 150 00:12:54,710 --> 00:12:58,660 ''For throughout the land It is through them that life is lived.'' 151 00:12:58,790 --> 00:13:02,380 Her artistic career continued to thrive. 152 00:13:03,150 --> 00:13:06,220 ''Through them the worker is born and nurtured.'' 153 00:13:06,550 --> 00:13:09,300 ''And the waters flow together. And the stars appear.'' 154 00:13:09,430 --> 00:13:12,420 ''On the oceans of fields The crops are winding'' 155 00:13:12,510 --> 00:13:16,260 ''For the harvest to unite Like brothers again.'' 156 00:13:17,230 --> 00:13:21,060 Among those people I felt extremely happy. 157 00:13:42,630 --> 00:13:44,930 The supreme moment both for Mother Ghita 158 00:13:45,070 --> 00:13:47,370 and for those from the Culture and Propaganda offlces 159 00:13:47,510 --> 00:13:52,580 was when she appeared on stage beside the General Secretary 160 00:13:52,710 --> 00:13:55,700 of the Romanian Communist Party, Nicolae Ceausescu. 161 00:13:55,790 --> 00:14:00,860 It was a proud moment for all those involved in Valcea's culture. 162 00:14:01,390 --> 00:14:04,220 I was invited to Bucharest 163 00:14:04,590 --> 00:14:13,410 and asked to come on the stage, where I got to talk. 164 00:14:14,110 --> 00:14:21,530 Ceausescu was on stage, next to his wife Elena. 165 00:14:21,950 --> 00:14:25,860 She wasn't worth much, but Ceausescu was always 166 00:14:25,910 --> 00:14:29,860 with the people, always among them. 167 00:14:29,990 --> 00:14:32,220 You could tell this was his country. 168 00:14:32,270 --> 00:14:34,700 I saw him as the eminent man of our country. 169 00:14:34,790 --> 00:14:38,380 This was my way of seeing Ceausescu. 170 00:14:45,910 --> 00:14:49,100 Ceausescu was a man. 171 00:14:49,670 --> 00:14:54,900 I seem to remember that I once was taken to Scornicesti, where he was born. 172 00:14:54,950 --> 00:14:59,890 If those malicious spirits had not shown up around her house, 173 00:14:59,990 --> 00:15:03,900 Mother Ghita,s sunset years would have been different. 174 00:15:04,030 --> 00:15:11,300 She had so many wonderful memories to flll the rest of her days. 175 00:15:28,390 --> 00:15:33,660 Over time, unfortunately, these spirits became more and more grotesque. 176 00:15:34,070 --> 00:15:38,420 It became more difflcult to live with them. 177 00:15:49,750 --> 00:15:53,140 Her sense of peace came from the past. 178 00:16:24,670 --> 00:16:26,860 It's Beautiful. 179 00:16:33,910 --> 00:16:37,500 My awards are staying in my house. 180 00:16:39,310 --> 00:16:42,220 I wouldn't give up any of them for nothin'. 181 00:16:42,310 --> 00:16:46,660 And I have plenty more in a suitcase. 182 00:16:55,110 --> 00:16:58,340 I am living through my awards. 183 00:17:42,950 --> 00:17:48,620 The collapse of the political system brutally ended Mother Ghita's career. 184 00:17:51,870 --> 00:17:55,490 At my age, at 86 years, I don't feel regrets about anything. 185 00:17:55,910 --> 00:18:00,220 Why not say it ? The world is much worse now. 186 00:18:00,630 --> 00:18:03,940 Nobody's worth much, except for the village priest. 187 00:18:04,270 --> 00:18:06,700 The only thing lurking in front of her gate, 188 00:18:06,750 --> 00:18:11,610 where journalists used to wait in line for an interview, are the old malicious spirits. 189 00:18:11,830 --> 00:18:17,620 The famous actor Amza Pellea came to see me. 190 00:18:17,710 --> 00:18:21,820 We had a huge banquet in the courtyard. 191 00:18:22,630 --> 00:18:28,890 I had seventy people sitting at my table. 192 00:18:28,990 --> 00:18:30,740 Seventy ! 193 00:18:31,350 --> 00:18:35,500 And among them were my enemies too. 194 00:18:36,150 --> 00:18:43,830 They were dying of envy. But still they came. 195 00:18:54,070 --> 00:18:57,540 The former offlcials of Creative Arts, Culture and Propaganda 196 00:18:57,630 --> 00:18:59,100 do not visit anymore. 197 00:18:59,190 --> 00:19:04,100 All those who once decreed her a poet of genius now avoid her. 198 00:19:04,510 --> 00:19:06,700 In vain did she knock upon their doors. 199 00:19:06,790 --> 00:19:08,980 They all abandoned her. 200 00:19:09,070 --> 00:19:11,420 Some of them were promoted in government, 201 00:19:11,550 --> 00:19:14,380 others became diplomats proudly representing the country abroad, 202 00:19:14,510 --> 00:19:18,210 and most of them are wealthy businessmen. 203 00:19:18,470 --> 00:19:23,140 But Mother Ghita is unchanged. A poet. 204 00:19:32,270 --> 00:19:34,180 ''I am a peasant's son'' 205 00:19:34,270 --> 00:19:37,660 ''A peasant's son of the new Romania.'' 206 00:19:37,790 --> 00:19:39,860 Does our great national poet, Eminescu, have poems like that ? 207 00:19:39,910 --> 00:19:41,660 And if he does, so what ? 208 00:19:41,790 --> 00:19:49,140 I surpass him with my poems, my little nothings. 209 00:19:50,150 --> 00:19:53,980 ''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.'' 210 00:19:54,070 --> 00:19:57,500 ''And I am proud of my name Tied to this land.'' 211 00:19:57,910 --> 00:19:59,420 Can Eminescu write poems like mine ? 212 00:19:59,510 --> 00:20:03,660 No, he can't. Nobody can. There's no one like me. 213 00:20:03,750 --> 00:20:07,140 ''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.'' 214 00:20:07,670 --> 00:20:10,620 ''I am the naked sole that bathes in dew drops.'' 215 00:20:10,710 --> 00:20:14,220 ''And I am the sturdy tree unshaken by wind.'' 216 00:20:14,390 --> 00:20:18,010 Where does Eminescu have poems like that ? Where ? 217 00:20:18,110 --> 00:20:21,340 Where do the other poets have poems like that ? 218 00:20:21,470 --> 00:20:25,380 There's no one like me. They are nobody. 219 00:20:25,590 --> 00:20:33,220 Look at my awards. I have many awards. They have none. 220 00:20:49,750 --> 00:20:53,700 She has never forgotten that she was declared a national treasure, 221 00:20:53,790 --> 00:20:56,780 that her work was deemed everlasting. 222 00:20:56,910 --> 00:21:00,980 She knows that sooner or later her modest home 223 00:21:01,070 --> 00:21:04,060 will once again become a place of pilgrimage 224 00:21:04,190 --> 00:21:05,940 for all those who love poetry. 225 00:21:06,070 --> 00:21:12,660 I am donating this house to a museum 226 00:21:12,910 --> 00:21:14,900 for people to come and visit it. 227 00:21:14,990 --> 00:21:19,260 In my notebooks they will find all my dreams. 228 00:21:19,430 --> 00:21:25,580 You will come to visit it, and the Americans too, 229 00:21:25,630 --> 00:21:29,020 because this house is a historical monument. 230 00:21:29,110 --> 00:21:34,050 She may be old, but her strength is sufflcient to flght the world if necessary. 231 00:21:41,750 --> 00:21:47,060 But not so the malicious spirits that harass her incessantly. 232 00:21:49,750 --> 00:21:53,100 ''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.'' 233 00:21:53,390 --> 00:21:56,460 ''And I am proud of my name tied to this land.'' 234 00:21:56,590 --> 00:22:00,460 ''I am the naked sole that bathes in dew drops'' 235 00:22:00,790 --> 00:22:03,740 ''And I am the strong tree unshaken by wind...'' 236 00:22:03,790 --> 00:22:08,100 We are grateful for the support of: 237 00:22:08,150 --> 00:22:13,380 Valcea's Cultural and Social Education Committee 238 00:22:13,430 --> 00:22:18,550 Valcea's Centre of Preservation and Guidance of Folk Creations 239 00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:23,740 Valcea's Party Committee 240 00:22:23,790 --> 00:22:29,020 National Council for Social Education and Culture 241 00:22:29,110 --> 00:22:34,180 Folk Creation National Centre