Deportations to Siberia

Description

Deportations to Siberia – a series of animated short films by Ghenadie Popescu 
Thursday, March 7, 2024, 7 pm
Zpace (The House of Zemstvo, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chisinau)

The screening will be preceded by a short introduction to provide context to the events depicted and will be followed by a question and answer session in the presence of artist Ghenadie Popescu. Audience members are also invited to visit Ghenadie’s studio to learn more about the process of making these short films.
The screenings are in Romanian with English subtitles.

1. Țigănești-Kurgan-Țigănești (2019 / 9 min 55 sec): This short film tells the story of Vasile Vieru, born in the village of Țigănești, Strășeni (north of Chișinău). In the summer of 1949, at the age of 13, together with his mother and older brother, he was deported to the Kurgan region, in today’s south-western Russia. The animation was based on drawings made by children from the village of Tiganesti during a summer school.
2. Childhood memories (2018 / 8 min 30 sec): About 10 years ago, Ghenadie Popescu started interviewing survivors of the 1941 and 1949 deportations and people subjected to the repression of the Soviet regime. He has accumulated an archive of over 100 testimonies, which he wants to bring to life through his animations. This project is still in progress, with the desire to become a feature-length animated documentary film. We present two animated short films featuring the testimonies of Ștefan Ciobani (1943) and Nina Tănase (1955).
3. Elena Severin, 1940 (2023 / 12 min): the story of another survivor. Elena tells the story of the night, when Soviet security forces came looking for her and her family. At her young age, memories become rather anecdotal and that is what this short film captures.
4. The Cat Without a Name (2022 / 16 min): During the 1949 mass deportations from the present-day Republic of Moldova to Siberia, a process of collectivisation of animals took place. Cats, who apparently had no function within the new system, were casually forgotten. This story humorously presents the life of an unnamed cat.

Ghenadie Popescu (b. 1971, Floresti, Republic of Moldova) lives and works in Chisinau. He began his professional career in the painting department of the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, which he attended for a period of 5 years. After this stage of formal education, his interests led him to develop as a multidisciplinary artist, practicing sculpture, installation, performance, video art and animation. His interest in local tradition and identity, in the context of post-Soviet countries, marks most of his works, which have been exhibited in various museums and galleries in Europe. At present all his efforts are focused on continuing the realization of animation projects, which he carries out in his spare time and mostly on his own.