The tapestry bears the nostalgia of countless past encounters and shared meals. The tablecloth belonged to the actress Oana Ioachim, who passed away in 2015, and was used in the film directed by Razvan Savescu – “Inceput,” a film he dedicated to Oana, his wife.
The movie tells the story of a woman suffering from cancer, who feels the need to distance herself from the environment she used to live in. Together with her husband, she moves to the mountains, to a secluded house that lacks the usual comforts. She enjoys the silence and solitude of the place, the harsh winter on the mountain. The only people she communicates well with are two elderly individuals who had experienced the same illness.
After a while, her relationship with her husband deteriorates because he feels the need to return to the city, to experience action. Spiritually, the two of them evolve differently, and thus, their feelings transform.
The next two objects, The Tablecloth and the Plate, though holding different meaning for the people donating them, may take us in two wonderful directions of the Romanian heritage and cinema. When investigating the culturale heritage form an anthopological point of view, any documentarist team will be invited to a meal, or at least a little snack, on a table covered by the typical flowers design table cloth and the old plates belonging to the family, a setting that opens hearts and minds and makes the conversation flow, so the project comes to life.
In the same time, the perpetual joke about the Romanian New Wave is “sitting at the table and eating ciorba”. It started as a critique, but it became a meme, a paradox that is both poignant and a metastyle. While there is a certain truth to it, it also helps the less connoisseur delve into a beautiful rich cinematography that had the courage to present the reality in a frust, unfiltred manner, to rase important questions about the evolution (or involution) of our society, about our expectations as spectators and to challenge the status quo, again making these two objects symbols of the cultural heritage awarness so much needed in these troubled times. – Sabina Ulubeanu, curator