Filmmaker Statement

I lived the first 10 years of my life under the Communist regime in Romania. As a child I experienced first-hand some of the restraints imposed by a totalitarian government. Many intellectuals, artists and people of faith were living under constant threat, some of them having their phones tapped, being prevented from going to university, being interrogated, or even killed. I wanted to bring to light some of the untold stories of "unsung heroes" who'd been willing to live uncompromisingly for the sake of the truth. Although he is a fictional character, he is based on real people who lived back then and went through countless hours of interrogation and even beatings. Some of them were even killed by the secret police. Although the film is set in the the 80's behind the Iron Curtain, unfortunately the story is quite relevant today. We need to look no further than what's going on in Ukraine, or how communist ideas, often hidden behind benign masks, tend to sneak in Western democracies.