There are some invisible frontiers between different spaces in this capital, which you cannot see, but sometimes there comes somebody to shout at you and to point at them with his finger. At regular intervals, whole streets of the city are paralyzed by shooting sessions for several hours or one day. Various series, full-length feature films or short reel films, Romanian or foreign, occupy zones in the center of Bucharest. That's the truth: we have a small center. You know we can never pass from your space into their space, because the policemen or those people would reprove you. More precisely, it is forbidden to pass from your reality into their film. This seems to be the most interesting part: there is a thin line and, if you cross it, you'll be in a film. If you remain on your sidewalk, then everything is all right, nothing can happen. You feel you always need to ask: Where should I pass on so that I shouldn't get into the frame? That's why I came to think of how many movies like this exist in Bucharest every day and how many zones are used to create the illusion of a civilization, to refine the reality and to extract the perfect frame for a commercial. I think we should learn from the perspectives of these people who are shooting films. The city is too heterogeneous and too awry to look good everywhere. Bucharest should be looked at from different angles so that you may get a positive impression. Sometime you feel you should cover one eye with your hand when you see a horrible billboard; some other times you close your eyes in front of a bright orange. Without dramatization, I hope that in 50 years Bucharest will be called "The Little Cannes". In other words, we'll step out of one film only to enter another. 24 FUN, April 2008 Translated by Monica Manolachi
by Cătălin Matei
