In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films—mostly Hollywood action movies—smashed through the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the free world. A black market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the people — and fueled a revolution. Combining drama with first-person accounts, “Chuck Norris vs. Communism,” directed by Ilinca Calugareanu, premieres on INDEPENDENT LENS Monday, Jan. 4, 2016 on PBS.
1980s Romania was culturally isolated and ideologically censored; all images of life outside the Iron Curtain were cut off and TV was reduced to a couple of hours of propaganda bulletins each day. From the drab concrete housing blocks to the food ration lines, an overwhelming fear of state surveillance prevented people from stepping out of line. But there was one window into the free world available to anyone who dared to look.
In the mid-1980s, under the noses of Nicolae Ceausescu’s secret police, thousands of Hollywood films were smuggled into the country by a shadowy operative named Zamfir. They were dubbed by Irina Nistor, a courageous female translator whose distinct voice captivated the nation and became a symbol of freedom. A network of underground screening rooms sprung up across the country. The atmosphere was filled with danger and suspicion, especially when the regime began clamping down on the clandestine screenings. VCRs were confiscated, and screening organizers were called in for questioning.
While the fearless stories of action heroes like Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone captured the imagination, it was the lavish settings and backdrops that mesmerized the audience. For the first time, Romanians saw what they had been denied: supermarkets full of food, the latest fashions, fast cars, and most of all, freedom.
“These Hollywood action movies seeped through the cracks of a repressive regime, just as the Internet now offers a vision of a wider world to people living in closed societies,” says INDEPENDENT LENS executive producer Lois Vossen. “'Chuck Norris vs. Communism' is a reminder of the extraordinary power that pop culture plays in creating common ground between diverse people and shattering the walls that separate us.”
Past episodes of INDEPENDENT LENS are available for online viewing. INDEPENDENT LENS is on Facebook, Instagram, and you can follow @IndependentLens on Twitter. "Chuck Norris vs. Communism" is on Facebook.
