Motto: ''The Romanian was born a poet'' Vasile Alecsandri
Very lucky Mother Ghita was.
Her neighbor across the way was as talkative as she.
After her neighbor passed away,
strange things began to happen in the house of Mother Ghita.
From the elders Mother Ghita knew
that malicious spirits nestle in abandoned houses.
Ever since her neighbor died,
a fear began to haunt her that a hideous entity had moved in.
What didn,t Mother Ghita do to shoo away these spirits ?
She did everything, from old women's incantations to exorcism.
Unhappily, though, with no results.
The cursed spirits seemed to have made themselves at home for good,
giving her no peace night or day.
MOTHER GHITA
a film by Diana Deleanu
director of photography Ion Ciucu
edited by Cosmin Bunea
producer Iulian Margu
Not all of Mother Ghita,s days had been like this.
For us to understand let us begin at the beginning.
Mother Ghita saw a man flrst step on the moon,
on the television at the village Cultural Centre.
She was so impressed by what she had seen
that immediately she uttered the following verse.
''Tell me moon, so far away, Did you ever think that of all the stars''
''You would ever be the first to host a man ?''
''I cannot tell if you are happy, I cannot tell if you are frightened''
''That on your foggy soil a living man has stepped his foot.''
''They did not come to master you, They did not come to rob you.''
''They came to see your fields, your birds, your people, your tongue, your voice.''
''To see the life your people live, the books they learn,''
''What they put on their tables, what animals they breed.''
At that moment, by accident or by destiny,
the Instructor of Culture for the village so happened to be there.
Man's flrst step on lunar soil thus coincided with that of Mother Ghita on literary soil.
Naturally, her oral poetry was naive.
But this was not important;
after all, no one is born educated.
The important thing was that Mother Ghita had potential.
The whole world listened to me,
and now I am thinking that I was chosen by Fate.
Doina of Otasau
It was a great discovery and a resounding success
for the Centre of Preservation and Guidance of Folk Customs.
The Centre excelled in Folk Dance, Pottery and Weaving,
but as for Peasant-Poets they were in bad shape.
This situation came under severe criticism from the Central Cultural Commission.
Once Mother Ghita was discovered, this dark period in Valcea,s culture ended.
Because she had no formal training, those assigned to the destiny of culture
placed her into the Peasant-Poet category.
''A mad yearning steals me in the night''
''To cast the beans behind the gate.''
''Three beans means great joy, Means someone will come round,''
''Means I should leave my door ajar.''
''I wish I could trust those beans, if only once.''
It was indicative of what the socialist ideology called ,,obscurantism,,
that which what had not yet been purged from the Romanian peasant,s life
and thus manifested richly in the works of Mother Ghita.
That was because she was writing only about her own day-to-day life.
History must record that her principal sources of inspiration
were the moon, the sun, the springs, the forest.
As the critics would later note, her poetry did not then betray
a superior artistic conscience.
Her new designation as Poet began to force her hand.
If until then she had seen herself as a peasant,
and a poet in her free time, she now understood that
the roles had reversed themselves.
Before she wrote for her own pleasure,
but now she realized that she needed to pursue
writing with a sense of duty.
She realized she had to change, to abandon minor things
and to focus on the great socialist themes.
It,s true that she was carefully oriented by the instructors
at the Centre for Guidance, Conservation and Valoriflcation of Folk Creations.
These people were very meticulous and committed to their assignments.
They must be credited because they had to work hard to bring her
to a high level of revolutionary consciousness.
Mother Ghita took part in numerous short training courses,
for such is necessary for the revolutionary conscience
to achieve a certain level.
After that her poetry began to sound different,
it began to have a message, a direction.
We can say that the insigniflcant period of her creation was gone.
''My Homeland''
''My homeland, ancestral land It is here I was born Romanian.''
''From your undessicated springs I drink incessantly.''
It was not long before the pundits of Mother Ghita,s poetry appeared.
Confronted with these uncommon works, they did not hesitate to speak
of a phenomenon, of their rapture as before a miracle,
to eulogize this living embodiment of the Romanian folk spirit.
They all concurred that Mother Ghita was a flgurehead in the long-emerging
evolution of folk creation in its creative dynamic of new values.
''The Voice of My Country Resounds Happy New Year''
''With Good Wishes, Dear and Valued Leader The Best Son of Our People.''
Mother Ghita,s artistic evolution was incendiary.
In accordance with tradition, all Party or State delegations were welcomed
at the county border by Mother Ghita with bread and salt.
Dressed in traditional folk costume she would present any number of flery verses.
I went to many places. Everywhere I went from Valcea to Bucharest,
everybody said, here is Gheorgita Maleanu, she must stay with us, and speak.
She became a symbol of the Romanian Peasant
toiling upon the land, but also toiling with the pen.
Everywhere Mother Ghita went, success was guaranteed,
no matter the event.'
Woman,s Day, Republic Day, Romanian Communist Party Day,
Harvest Day and so on...
Each moment I was the center of attention.
I was very important.
No matter where I would go, the people would welcome me with open arms,
and I was in the seventh heaven.
Tlme passed, and Mother Ghita became an institution.
She was a wife, a mother, a housekeeper, a collectivist, a folk dancer, a weaver,
a singer and, most of all, a Peasant-Poet genius,
as the comrades from the Ministry of Culture used to say.
Slowly, Mother Ghita became famous beyond Valcea,s borders.
From that moment on the institution of Mother Ghita began receiving
signiflcant support from the authorities,
particularly from the Choreography and Costumes Section of the Centre of Guidance
and Preservation of Folk Creations, from the Themes and Literary Prosody Section
of the Cultural and Social Education Committee,
and from the Propaganda section of Valcea,s Communist Party Committee
for public speeches and interviews in mass-media.
She was afforded the opportunity to meet the most important people of the moment.
I have never changed my way of speaking on stage,
but some people envied me.
The State Secretary was walking past, he stopped in front of me and shook my hand.
He did this with me only. Why is this ?
Of all the people there he stopped in front of me.
I felt his sincere affection towards me. I needed nothing else.
It was only during the ceremony in which the Propaganda Secretary declared
her to be a national treasure that she started believing
in the value of her verses.
She represented Valcea county with great success
in the great socialist festival of work and creation
known as ,,Romania, We Sing of Thee,,.
Everywhere I went I was awarded many prizes.
The recognitions came in rapid succession; her life changed from one day to the next.
In Bucharest I went to the Party newspaper building.
I was greeted by the important people there.
Even before I got there,
they had called me ''incredible.''
She was now convinced of her own genius
and recognized by the offlcials from the Offlces of Culture and Propaganda.
Her poems were being published in all the newspapers.
She was invited more and more to appear on television,
to give radio interviews.
We honor our peasants with a ''Good Morning!''
''For bringing wealth to hearts And brightness to horizon.''
''For throughout the land It is through them that life is lived.''
Her artistic career continued to thrive.
''Through them the worker is born and nurtured.''
''And the waters flow together. And the stars appear.''
''On the oceans of fields The crops are winding''
''For the harvest to unite Like brothers again.''
Among those people I felt extremely happy.
The supreme moment both for Mother Ghita
and for those from the Culture and Propaganda offlces
was when she appeared on stage beside the General Secretary
of the Romanian Communist Party, Nicolae Ceausescu.
It was a proud moment for all those involved in Valcea's culture.
I was invited to Bucharest
and asked to come on the stage, where I got to talk.
Ceausescu was on stage, next to his wife Elena.
She wasn't worth much, but Ceausescu was always
with the people, always among them.
You could tell this was his country.
I saw him as the eminent man of our country.
This was my way of seeing Ceausescu.
Ceausescu was a man.
I seem to remember that I once was taken to Scornicesti, where he was born.
If those malicious spirits had not shown up around her house,
Mother Ghita,s sunset years would have been different.
She had so many wonderful memories to flll the rest of her days.
Over time, unfortunately, these spirits became more and more grotesque.
It became more difflcult to live with them.
Her sense of peace came from the past.
It's Beautiful.
My awards are staying in my house.
I wouldn't give up any of them for nothin'.
And I have plenty more in a suitcase.
I am living through my awards.
The collapse of the political system brutally ended Mother Ghita's career.
At my age, at 86 years, I don't feel regrets about anything.
Why not say it ? The world is much worse now.
Nobody's worth much, except for the village priest.
The only thing lurking in front of her gate,
where journalists used to wait in line for an interview, are the old malicious spirits.
The famous actor Amza Pellea came to see me.
We had a huge banquet in the courtyard.
I had seventy people sitting at my table.
Seventy !
And among them were my enemies too.
They were dying of envy. But still they came.
The former offlcials of Creative Arts, Culture and Propaganda
do not visit anymore.
All those who once decreed her a poet of genius now avoid her.
In vain did she knock upon their doors.
They all abandoned her.
Some of them were promoted in government,
others became diplomats proudly representing the country abroad,
and most of them are wealthy businessmen.
But Mother Ghita is unchanged. A poet.
''I am a peasant's son''
''A peasant's son of the new Romania.''
Does our great national poet, Eminescu, have poems like that ?
And if he does, so what ?
I surpass him with my poems, my little nothings.
''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.''
''And I am proud of my name Tied to this land.''
Can Eminescu write poems like mine ?
No, he can't. Nobody can. There's no one like me.
''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.''
''I am the naked sole that bathes in dew drops.''
''And I am the sturdy tree unshaken by wind.''
Where does Eminescu have poems like that ? Where ?
Where do the other poets have poems like that ?
There's no one like me. They are nobody.
Look at my awards. I have many awards. They have none.
She has never forgotten that she was declared a national treasure,
that her work was deemed everlasting.
She knows that sooner or later her modest home
will once again become a place of pilgrimage
for all those who love poetry.
I am donating this house to a museum
for people to come and visit it.
In my notebooks they will find all my dreams.
You will come to visit it, and the Americans too,
because this house is a historical monument.
She may be old, but her strength is sufflcient to flght the world if necessary.
But not so the malicious spirits that harass her incessantly.
''I am a peasant's son of the new Romania.''
''And I am proud of my name tied to this land.''
''I am the naked sole that bathes in dew drops''
''And I am the strong tree unshaken by wind...''
We are grateful for the support of:
Valcea's Cultural and Social Education Committee
Valcea's Centre of Preservation and Guidance of Folk Creations
Valcea's Party Committee
National Council for Social Education and Culture
Folk Creation National Centre