''Oglinda'' ("The Mirror"), also known as ''Începutul adevărului'' ("The Beginning of Truth"), is a controversial 1993 film by

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n director

Sergiu Nicolaescu Sergiu Florin Nicolaescu (; 13 April 1930 – 3 January 2013) was a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He was best known for his historical films, such as ''Mihai Viteazul'' (1970, released in English both under the equivalent titl ...

. It depicts

Romania during World War II Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political uph ...

, focusing on the

Royal Coup Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

of 23 August 1944 that toppled

Ion Antonescu Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II. A Romanian Army career officer who made ...

, the

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

-allied ''

Conducător ''Conducător'' (, "Leader") was the title used officially by Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu during World War II, also occasionally used in official discourse to refer to Carol II and Nicolae Ceaușescu. History The word is derived from the Ro ...

'' and

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Cast

* as

Michael I of Romania Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947. Shortly after Michael's ...

Gheorghe Dinică Gheorghe Dinică (; 1 January 1934 – 10 November 2009) was a Romanian actor. Career Dinică showed an early interest in acting, being part of different amateur theater troupes since he was 17. In 1957, he entered The National Institute of Thea ...

Mihai Antonescu Mihai Antonescu (18 November 1904 – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister and List of Foreign Ministers of Romania, Foreign Minister during World War II, executed in 1946 as a wa ...

* as

Iuliu Maniu Iuliu Maniu (; 8 January 1873 – 5 February 1953) was an Austro-Hungarian-born lawyer and Romanian politician. He was a leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, playing an important role in the Un ...

George Constantin George Constantin (; 3 May 1933 – 30 April 1994) was a Romanian actor.

Andrey Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (russian: Андре́й Януа́рьевич Выши́нский; pl, Andrzej Wyszyński) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is known as a state prosecutor of Joseph ...

*Sergiu Nicolaescu as Johannes Frießner * as

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

*Peter Wolf Joachim as Joachim von Ribbentrop *

Șerban Ionescu Șerban Ionescu (; 23 September 1950 – 21 November 2012) was a Romanian actor, born in Corabia, Olt County.https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0409588 Ionescu was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 and died at Floreasca Emergency Hospital in Buchares ...

Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (; November 4, 1900 – April 17, 1954) was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he ...

George Alexandru George Alexandru (; 21 November 1957 – 1 January 2016) was a Romanian film and theater actor. Filmography * ' (1978) * ' (1980) * ' (1983) * ' (1985) * '' Noi, cei din linia întâi'' (1985) * ''Figuranții'' (1987) * ''François Villon - Poe ...

as * as Mircea Ionnițiu *

Ștefan Iordache Ştefan Iordache (; 3 February 1941 – 14 September 2008) was a Romanian actor. Iordache was born in Calafat. In 2006, he was voted the best actor in Romania. He died, aged 67, in Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = A ...

Eugen Cristescu Eugen Cristescu (3 April 1895 – 12 June 1950) was the second head of the Kingdom of Romania's domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SSI), forerunner of today's SRI, convicted in 1946 as a war criminal. He previously se ...

Dorel Vișan Dorel Vișan (; born 25 June 1937) is a Romanian actor. He has appeared in 65 films since 1974. He was nominated for the award of Best Actor at the 1988 European Film Awards. He was born in Tăușeni, Cluj County. In 1965 he graduated from the ...

Petru Groza Petru Groza (7 December 1884 – 7 January 1958) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Commu ...

Mitică Popescu Mitică Popescu (; 2 December 1936 – 3 January 2023) was a Romanian actor. Biography Popescu was born in Bucharest on 2 December 1936. He died on 3 January, at the age of 86, at the Elias Hospital in Bucharest, where he was hospitalized. Act ...

as Dumitru Săracu *

Emil Hossu Emil Hossu (; 24 November 1941 – 25 January 2012) was a Romanian actor. Hossu was born into a Greek-Catholic family in Ocna Sibiului, Sibiu County. He was a well-known actor of stage and screen in the 1980s and 1990s, having performed in ...

as Colonel *Ion Lupu as General

Constantin Sănătescu Constantin Sănătescu (14 January 1885 – 8 November 1947) was a Romanian general and statesman who served as the 44th Prime Minister of Romania after the 23 August 1944 coup after which Romania left the Axis powers and joined the Allies. Earl ...

Vladimir Găitan Vladimir Găitan (; 2 February 1947 – 10 November 2020) was a Romanian actor. Born in Suceava, he studied at the Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography in Bucharest, graduating in 1970. Găitan appeared in more than forty films since ...

Dinu Brătianu Dinu Brătianu (January 13, 1866 – May 20, 1950), born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian engineer and politician who led the National Liberal Party (PNL) starting in 1934. Life Early career Born at the estate of ''Florica'', in ...

* as *

Iurie Darie Iurie Darie (; 14 March 1929 – 9 November 2012) was a Romanian actor. Biography He was born in Vadul-Rașcov, Soroca County, Kingdom of Romania. He studied at the Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography in Bucharest, graduating in ...

as Iorgu Ghica * as SS-Standartenführer * as Gheorghe Brătianu * as Marshal

Fyodor Tolbukhin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Толбу́хин; 16 June 1894 – 17 October 1949) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. Early life and military career Tolbukhin was born into ...

* as

Maria Antonescu Maria Antonescu (born Maria Niculescu, also known as Maria General Antonescu, later Maria Mareșal Antonescu, or Rica Antonescu; 3 November 1892 – 18 October 1964) was a Romanian socialite and philanthropist and the wife of World War II author ...

Olga Bucătaru Olga Bucătaru (March 27, 1942, Suceava – April 10, 2020, Bucharest) was a Romanian film and stage actress. She graduated in 1965 from the Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film. In 2002 she was awarded the National Order of Faithful ...

as Queen Mother Helen * as Baron

Manfred von Killinger Manfred Freiherr von Killinger (July 14, 1886 – September 2, 1944) was a German naval officer, ''Freikorps'' leader, military writer and Nazi politician. A veteran of World War I and member of the ''Marinebrigade Ehrhardt'' during the Germa ...

*Liviu Crăciun as General Aurel Aldea * Traian Stănescu as

Constantin Titel Petrescu Constantin Titel Petrescu (5 February 1888 – 2 September 1957) was a Romanian politician and lawyer. He was the leader of the Romanian Social Democratic Party. He was born in Craiova, the son of an employee of the National Bank in Buchare ...

*Petru Moraru as

Teohari Georgescu Teohari Georgescu (January 31, 1908 – December 31, 1976) was a Romanian statesman and a high-ranking member of the Romanian Communist Party. Early life Born in Chitila, near Bucharest, he was the third of seven children of Constantin and A ...

* as

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ( ...

* as

Corneliu Coposu Corneliu (Cornel) Coposu () (20 May 1914 – 11 November 1995) was a Christian Democratic and liberal conservative Romanian politician, the founder of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party ( ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc Cre� ...

Paul Ioachim Paul Ioachim (1930 in Buzău, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to ...

* as

Gheorghe Pintilie Gheorghe Pintilie (born Panteley Timofiy Bodnarenko, ua, Пантелей Тимофій Боднаренко; also rendered as Pintilie Bodnarenco, nicknamed Pantiușa; November 9, 1902 – August 21, 1985) was a Soviet and Romanian intelligence ...

Constantin Drăgănescu Constantin Drăgănescu (27 September 1936 – 26 March 2020) was a Romanian actor. He appeared in more than fifty films since 1972. Selected filmography References External links * 1936 births 2020 deaths Romanian male film actors ...

as Intelligence Service agent *Virgil Popovici — General

Reactions

The film was criticized as being apologetic of Antonescu, whom it portrays as a martyr figure, without mention being made of his complicity in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

(''see

Holocaust in Romania The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after ...

'').Liz Fekete
"Nostalgia for War-time Dictator Grows"
, in '' Independent Race and Refugee News Network'', May 1, 1994

Radu Ioanid Radu may refer to: People * Radu (given name), Romanian masculine given name * Radu (surname), Romanian surname * Rulers of Wallachia, see * Prince Radu of Romania (born 1960), disputed pretender to the former Romanian throne Other uses * Ra ...

, "Romania", in David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig (eds.), ''The World Reacts to the Holocaust'',

Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

, Baltimore & London, 1996, p.251. ''Oglinda'' is also sympathetic to Antonescu's

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

ally

, who is depicted as a calm and wise politician. Nicolaescu himself claims that journalist

Octavian Paler Octavian Paler ( or ; July 2, 1926 – May 7, 2007) was a Romanian writer, journalist, politician in Communist Romania, and civil society activist in post-1989 Romania. Biography Octavian Paler was born in Lisa, Brașov County. He was educated ...

labeled it a "

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

film".Presentation of ''Oglinda''
o
Sergiu Nicolaescu's official site
/ref> The film was also criticized for several other errors. Historian and former public servant

Neagu Djuvara Neagu Bunea Djuvara (; 18 August 1916 – 25 January 2018) was a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. Biography Early life A native of Bucharest, he was descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family ...

, who in 1944 represented Antonescu's government to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, where he contacted the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

representative

Alexandra Kollontai Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (russian: Алекса́ндра Миха́йловна Коллонта́й, née Domontovich, Домонто́вич; – 9 March 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Theoretician ...

and unsuccessfully negotiated an

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...

, rejected the film's allusive take on these events, which claimed that Romania's special requests had been ignored by their counterparts, and called it "a lie". According to Sergiu Nicolaescu, former

King of Romania The King of Romania (Romanian: ''Regele României'') or King of the Romanians (Romanian: ''Regele Românilor''), was the title of the monarch of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when the Romanian Workers' Party proclaimed the Romanian ...

Michael I Michael I may refer to: * Pope Michael I of Alexandria, Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark in 743–767 * Michael I Rhangabes, Byzantine Emperor (died in 844) * Michael I Cerularius, Patriarch Michael I of Constantinopl ...

, the main decision factor behind Antonescu's deposition, objected to his character being depicted as a heavy smoker. Speaking in 2008, Djuvara criticized ''Oglinda'' in its entirety for mystification, while expressing similar reserves in respect to Nicolaescu's 2008 project, a biographical film on Michael's ancestor,

Carol I of Romania Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...

(''

Carol I Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...

''). Nicolaescu's 1993 production received negative assessments from several film critics. As part of his commentary on Nicolaescu's entire filmography, beginning with films he produced under the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, Valerian Sava depicted Nicolaescu as an untalented director caught in a "megalomaniac trance", and deemed ''Oglinda'' "a rudimentary historical reenactment". A similar overview was provided by , who described "the honor of a dueler", a cliché which he believed was characteristic of ''Oglinda'' as well as its predecessors ''

Mihai Viteazul Michael the Brave ( ro, Mihai Viteazul or ; 1558 – 9 August 1601), born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia (as Michael II, 1593 – 1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ''de facto'' ruler of Transylvania (1599 – 1600). ...

'' and '' Nemuritorii''.
"Pistoliada – ultimul fum, ultimul cartuș..."
in ''

Observator Cultural ''Observator Cultural'' (meaning "The Cultural Observer" in English) is a weekly literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. The magazine was started in 2000. The weekly publishes articles on Romania's cultural and arts scene as well as politica ...

'', Nr. 420-421, April 2008 Nicolaescu defended his film, claiming that its critics were "afraid to look in the face of history." He referred to ''Oglinda'' as "real history, without any form of restriction", and "the first and only Romanian

political film Political cinema, in the narrow sense of that portray current or historical events or social conditions through a partisan perspective in order to inform or to agitate the spectator. Political cinema exists in different forms, such as documenta ...

." He also maintained that

, a first-hand witness to the events, applauded the film upon its premiere.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Films directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu Political drama films Romanian World War II films 1990s Romanian-language films 1993 films 1993 drama films Romanian historical films