- Occupation
Director - Country
Romania
Ujica Andrei
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
"After all, a dictator is simply an artist who is able to fully put into practice his egotism. It is a mere question of aesthetic level, whether he turns out to be Baudelaire or Bolintineanu, Louis XVI or Nicolae Ceausescu." (Andrei Ujica). During the summary trial that he and his wife were submitted to, Nicolae Ceausescu is reviewing his long reign in power: 1965-1989. It is an historical tableau that in its scope resembles American film frescos such as those dedicated to the Vietnam War.
"After all, a dictator is simply an artist who is able to fully put into practice his egotism. It is a mere question of aesthetic level, whether he turns out to be Baudelaire or Bolintineanu, Louis XVI or Nicolae Ceausescu." (Andrei Ujica). During the summary trial that he and his wife were submitted to, Nicolae Ceausescu is reviewing his long reign in power: 1965-1989. It is an historical tableau that in its scope resembles American film frescos such as those dedicated to the Vietnam War.
Born in 1951 in Timisoara, Romania.With a background in literature, Ujica decides in 1990 to devote himself to cinema and creates Videograms of a Revolution (1992), co-directed with Harun Farocki, which becomes a landmark film on the relationship between political power and the media in Europe at the end of the Cold War. His second film, Out of the Present (1995), tells the story of cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent ten months aboard the space station Mir, while on earth, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Out of the Present has been compared to such emblematic titles in film history as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris, and is famous for being one of the most recognized non-fictional films of the 90's. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu concludes now his trilogy dedicated to the end of communism.Andrei Ujica also made two commissioned works for Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain: 2 Pasolini (short, 2000) and Unknown Quantity, with Paul Virilio and Svetlana Alexievitch (3D installation 2002, screen version 2005).