Shot Reverse Shot (2026) Movie Script

1
shot reverse shot
An old expression says "there's
no such thing as bad travel experiences,
there are only great travel stories."
In Romania, you have a lot
of great stories, especially in the 1980s.
I had told the Office of National Tourism,
which also meant the Securitate (secret police),
that I'd be writing
positive things about Romania
and I wanted to show
WWII memorials, things like that.
Clearly, the Securitate had
given me permission to come to Romania
under the idea that they'd have glowing,
fine, positive articles about Romania.
When I first came to Bucharest,
in December 1985,
I wrote to the Hanul lui Manuc
and I took a room there,
and when I arrived in the evening
at the North Train Station,
I was shocked that the entire
train station was completely dark,
and there were thousands,
thousands of people running everywhere.
I went to the Hanul lui Manuc,
I walked in
and noticed it was colder
in the hotel than it was outside.
I was checking into the hotel
and from across the room
I saw the cigarette glow
of a man sitting there.
He came over and introduced himself:
"Are you Mr. Serotta?
I'm Nick Pduraru
of the Office of National Tourism."
I felt I was in
an Eric Ambler spy story.
He told me he could get me
a reduced rate at the Athene Palace.
"You can stay at the Hanul lui Manuc,
but there's some things it doesn't have."
"Like what?"
"Like heat."
He was right.
The next day I moved to the Athene Palace
and got to visit the whole hotel,
where journalists had stayed in the 1940s,
when that hotel was center stage
for the drama that was Romania.
Being in Romania in the 1980s,
whether summer or winter,
you could see the people were suffering.
If you did go to someone's home,
you knew there'd be
one 40-watt lightbulb per room,
you knew they were living in
apartments that were cold in the winter.
People couldn't afford
to eat out at restaurants,
the goods they sold
in stores, consumer goods, were...
among the most awful
you could even imagine.
Things like toothpaste, shampoo,
I'd go to stores just
to look at them, they were awful.
You'd go to a book store and see
an entire wall full of books only by Ceauescu!
This is enough to make anybody depressed.
[Don't Annoy Me]
I was told before I left for Romania
"Bring Kent cigarettes!"
I said
"People only smoke Kent cigarettes?"
"They don't smoke them,
they just trade the packages."
So it was... I wouldn't call it
a bribe, it was basically a tip.
You could also bring -
if you came from the West,
if you brought some oranges,
that would be nice.
Kents in Romania,
not individual cigarettes, but the packs,
seemed to be like a currency,
so I brought them and I used them.
I was told I'd be surveilled
and I pretty much figured it out.
in the summer of 1987
I drove all over the country,
I had someone I'd hired,
his name was Eli Epstein,
he didn't mind being
with me as a translator,
as he and his family were
leaving for Israel after that summer.
Of course I knew
someone was following me,
we were driving either
in an Oltcit or a Dacia 1310,
and as we drove along these
long highways from one city to another
there was always a car behind us!
This was 1987, in the summer,
Romanians simply couldn't afford petrol!
So there were almost no cars,
the streets were empty,
but there was always
somebody right behind me.
Then I'd check into hotels,
and there would always be
someone checking in nearby.
I think what's missing
from my photography,
if I were looking at it
as an editor of documentary photography,
it would have been nicer if I had
visited more people in their homes.
But that, of course, would have been
impossible during the Ceauescu time.
Nobody really wanted you in their home.
A few people did,
like Harry and Eva Maiorovici in Cluj,
they invited me to their home,
I don't know why, but they did.
He was a composer, she was
a survivor of the camps - so was he.
But I wish I had met more people
and written down more of their stories.
I went to where they were building
the Avenue for the Victory of Socialism.
I was there exactly at the time
when it looked like the Moon,
lunar landscape, there was nothing there.
Every old building had been
completely torn down
and the new ones
had not come up yet.
I'd walk along the city taking pictures,
I remember taking one in front
of the Royal Palace in a snowstorm,
with a poor person just walking
across the windy, snow-swept street.
I took my camera
under my coat and went out
to where they were building
the Avenue for the Victory of Socialism.
I could see the cranes
and the construction going up.
At one time,
when my camera was obvious,
someone walked up to me
and asked for the film.
I gave it to him,
but I kept another camera under my coat,
so I could continue to take pictures.
There's a wonderful expression
by English economist John Maynard Keynes:
"When the facts change,
so do my opinions."
When I came to Bucharest, I was convinced
I'd be taking photos
and writing about WWII monuments,
of which there are actually very few.
But what I found so fascinating
was the Jewish community.
I had no idea it would be
that interesting and that I'd find it.
I didn't care what the Securitate thought.
I wanted to do what I wanted to do,
if they wanted to
throw me out, they would!
But I'd work as much
and as well as I could,
and I would see
what happened as we went along.
If one looks back at this
from many, many years later,
even if one looks, 100 years from now,
back at the 1980s,
and they look at my photographs,
what they're really going to see
is a pretty comprehensive view
of what Jewish life was like
in Romania in the last years
of the Ceauescu regime.
I consider it one of the highlights
of my life to have spent time in Romania,
to have recorded Jewish life as it was,
to have met people,
photographed them and spoken with them.
There's a photograph of
a memorial in Podu Iloaiei,
I went there with a friend,
Odette Blumenfeld,
because I read the book by
Curzio Malaparte called Kaputt.
In that book he describes the pogrom
in Iai, where he was at the time.
His landlord had been taken
in the pogrom of June-July 1941
and put in a boxcar and taken East -
or was that West from Iai?
Malaparte describes how
he and the Consul in Iai
went after the train
that the people had been on,
they opened up the boxcars
and dead bodies cascaded out of them.
Those dead bodies were buried
in a mass grave in Podu Iloaiei,
so I wanted to go there
to pay tribute and to take a photograph.
[In memory of our beloved
G. Altain, Gherin Ben Aron,
killed by the Fascist hordes
on June 29, 1941
in the Iai death train]
[Edward Serotta's
Securitate surveillance file]
Informer Leonte states that
between the 23rd and 29th of December 1985
American journalist Edward Serotta
will be in Romania.
In collaboration with Service 1 of the Securitate,
we will interpose sources near him.
In order to prevent any hostile action,
he will be surveilled.
Service 3 county departments
will be notified
and instructed to conduct surveilance
to prevent him from contacting
rebellious, parasite elements.
He placed his tripod at the intersection
of Decebal, Calea Moilor and Sf. Vineri
and photographed the bakery
further up Calea Moilor
with crates of
milk and yogurt bottles stacked in front.
In the market, the target photographed
three stalls selling paprika powder
and one selling flowers.
On Colei Street, the target
photographed the left-side window
of the Glassworking Cooperative,
with a sign reading "Glassworks",
which window contained:
one mirror, one painting of flowers,
one wedding portrait.
Our surveillance shows
that he has taken photographs
of rundown houses occupied
by Gypsies in Dudeti neighbourhood.
He photographed a group of Gypsies
pulling a cart with a pig carcass,
as "Sergiu" directed and photographed
them from various angles.
He continued down Olteni Street,
taking photos in
the direction of Vintil Street,
then photographed some
Gypsy children playing,
then "Sergiu" got them
to stand together for photos.
We made sure to inspect his room
and expose the film to compromise it.
Target "Sergiu" left at 11:40
down Calea Vcreti.
He photographed the demolished
area behind the museum
and two young Gypsies to whom
he gave one or two 100-lei bills.
Note: between 11:40 and 12:20,
"Sergiu" photographed several features,
such as the building at
55, Mircea Vod Street,
where he entered the courtyard
to photograph laundry hung out to dry.
Upon coming out, he photographed
three scantily-dressed Gypsy children.
No. 12, Calea Dudeti,
a building with shattered windows,
and No. 16, outside which
a Gypsy man was looking out at the street.
After photographing the florist's,
he took photos of
some street sweepers
and an unidentified woman
holding an egg carton.
He did not check
if he was being followed,
though while in static situations
he did look around intently.
As for the car he rented,
Mr. Serotta has commented
that the Oltcit he picked up
in Bucharest was malfunctioning,
so he had to replace it with a Dacia
whose brakes broke down
as he was going down a mountain pass.
The cars had had no technical inspection
and were dirty inside and out.
He reportedly gave
a ride to a police agent.
The car horn was broken.
In Botoani he bumped another car,
causing minor damage.
Our investigations show
he only stopped once,
before entering Nade village,
to photograph the road,
with the risk of immortalising
the vehicles coming toward Trgu Mure.
Serotta Edward has said
Americans rarely visit Romania
as prices are as high as in France,
so they prefer going there.
In Romania, hotels try
to imitate Western ones, but fail.
Service is terrible and
black market dealers abound,
greatly bothering tourists.
He added that he wonders
why meat and petrol are in short supply,
and that he has seen long queues.
He was told that
some products have been rationed
to pay off the country's foreign debt,
but the supply is sufficient.
The sources sent to accompany him
have made sure
he has received information
which accurarately depicts
the policy of our Party and State,
as regards national interests
and other subjects.
Photos showing the activity of
target "Spnu" ("Baldhead")
The target can be described
as dynamic, communicative,
perseverent in pursuing his goals;
he dresses plainly.
He indulges in alcohol intake.
He is the type of young journalist
who chases his objective doggedly
while using every means at his disposal,
from personal charm
to leveraging his contacts.
He never leaves his equipment unattended -
a professional reflex.
In Suceava, a woman told him
her husband admired his beauty
and said he looked just like
they imagined an American visitor would.
Of the 8,000 Jews in his native Atlanta,
7,000 work as clerks for Coca-Cola.
Serotta Edward has behaved positively,
making it look like he has
come to our country with good intentions.
He does not appear particularly cultured,
but rather superficial,
mainly interested in the Jewish subject.
Serotta has called
the chief Rabbi "remarkable"
as he leads "a State within the State".
Our source has expressed concern
regarding the chief Rabbi,
namely his directing Mr Serotta's attention
to the regrettable, but rare incidents
in the Romanian Jewish community.
It is well-known, the source has said,
that Romanians are tolerant
of other religions and nationalities.
Serotta has also photographed
the common grave in the Jewish Cemetery.
In his research into Romanian Jews,
Mr Serotta has suggested
we should make a change
to the Holocaust Monument
in Sighetu Marmaiei.
The plaque reads
"Victims of fascism and imperialism".
He suggested
removing the word "imperialism",
which bothers visitors from
countries that are imperialist, but killed no Jews.
When the pogrom in Iai was mentioned,
Mr Serotta was advised
to avoid the temptation
to overstress a singular event
which, though dramatic, is not
representative of the good relations
between Romanians and Jews.
No speaking activities were recorded
in his room during the day.