Irene Lusztig's documentary "Reconstruction" explores the journey motif on a number of different levels: Her physical journey to Romania serves as a foundation for an emotional journey to discover her grandmother's past. In doing so, her mother must confront her painful childhood by returning to Romania after 30 years. Ultimately, the documentary can not be resolved until Lusztig's mother comes to terms with the loss of her own mother.
In 1959, a group of six individuals, including the director's maternal grandmother, Monica Sevianu, stole over one million lei from a car transporting the money to the Romanian National Bank.Two months later, her daughter, Miki Lusztig, watched under gunpoint as her mother was taken away by the Romanian Securitate, the country's secret police.In 1961, the Romanian government commissioned a film about the bank heist entitled "Reconstruction." Instead of using actors for the propaganda film, the criminals -- either because they were promised leniency or because they were tortured -- played themselves. Lusztig uses clips from this unsettling display of Communist power as a foundation for her film.
Much like the film upon which it is based, Lusztig's docu-drama is framed as a detective story. She moves to Romania in order to piece together a portrait of a grandmother she never knew. She hopes that by gathering information about the events leading up to the robbery, she will be able to come to grips with the reasoning behind her departed grandmother's choices.The film manages to provide a large amalgamation of details, which causes it to be choppy at points.However, in the end, both the director and the viewer are left to decipher what is fact and what is fiction.
As Lusztig interviews people who knew her grandmother, she receives conflicting stories. The stories range from the banal idea that heist was committed purely to quench a pecuniary thirst to the imaginative idea that the money was going to be used to buy an airplane to fly the six robbers to Jerusalem with the left over money being distributed to the poor Jewish community. Yet the most compelling motive, revealed by the director's mother and aunt, is that these six Jewish intellectuals were dispelled by the same utopian Communist state that they worked to establish.
Consequently, by robbing a bank these individuals were rebelling against the ideals of Communism. At the very heart of any robbery is the notion that money will somehow make ones life better. Yet, the desire for money inherently flouts Communist constructs since money was worthless to the individual in a Communist state -- an individual simply could not do anything with it.Therefore, stealing money only serves as a way to cripple the economy. The Romanian Communist Party exploited this idea in reconstructing the bank heist on film. Not only did the film serve as propaganda to dispel criminal acts but also to reaffirm that the money stolen was the people's money.
The archival footage of "Reconstruction" also serves as a foundation for the director's commentary on how a regime inserts itself into the minds of its citizens through images.However, at times the director's narration trumps the images on the screen. The images which are devoid of narration make the most significant impact on the viewer. As joyous films of Bucharest appear on the screen, the viewer can only wonder about the harsh reality of the time. There are parades and gatherings caught on film using aesthetic principles, while in reality the government was simultaneously conducting purges of its party to rid itself of political dissidents and Jews. The ultimate irony, however, is that in the Revolution of 1989 the leader of the Communist Party's execution is filmed as propaganda to document Romania's triumph over Communism. Although, the film is supposed to be a source of great pride, it can not correct the problems of the past.
The gaping wounds of Romania's vicious past that lay exposed to the world are captured through present day footage of Bucharest. Buildings lay in ruin, dogs roam the streets and people still try to hide the truth. However, at times, the camera work seems to over sensationalize aspects of the city. But Irene Lusztig's journey to Bucharest is not intended to merely expose and condemn the ruin caused by the nation's dictatorships. Instead, her move to Romania serves as a vehicle for making her mother confront the evils of not the country, but of her childhood.
It becomes obvious early on that Lusztig's mother holds a great deal of resentment for her mother. She claims that she doesn't "actively think about [her] mother," and only with her return to Bucharest does she confront the feelings that she internalized for so many years. After her mother was released from prison, Miki never was able to confront Monica because she had become a frail old woman. Clearly, Miki lost her mother the day she was taken away by the police.
By returning to Romania, Miki is able rid herself of the torment that creeps through in her interviews as she finally realizes that she must accept her mother for who she really was. In coming to terms with her mother and her past, Miki allows her daughter to better understand her grandmother.Yet, the camera is never turned on the director, so the viewer is only left to assume that Irene is satisfied.Although, Monica's motives are never revealed and the mystery is never solved, the emotional journey of a mother and daughter is complete.
The documentary deftly confronts the scars left by years of Communist rule on the landscape of Romania while helping to bandage a relationship between a dead mother and her daughter. Whether or not the motives of the six individuals in the bank heist are ever discovered, Lusztig's film serves to deconstruct the notion that Romanian propaganda film is reality.
Ultimately, like Miki, only by accepting its history can Romania begin to change.
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