Odessa Part of Florin Iepan’s Currency

Florin Iepan knows what happened in Odessa on the last evening of One World Documentary Film Festival held in Bucharest, Florin Iepan made quite an impression on those that attended. Iepan started by telling the public that he can’t find anymore the support needed to complete his film. Later, the director admitted that everything is ok and his documentary is not in danger. Odessa will be made for sure. No doubt about it. What he wanted to get with this approach was a reaction from the public, somehow a prove that Romanians aren’t interested in this matter. And he might be right.

After that event, I asked him a few questions and I started with this: “Why Odessa? What is so special about what happened back in October 1941 that needed to be showed in a film?” Iepan answered: “there’s no doubt that the slaughter from Odessa in 1941 is the most horrifying moment from the entire modern history of Romania. But, at the same time, it’s mostly unknown for many Romanians. My goal is not to show Romania’s history. Odessa is just a pretext for analyzing the Romanian society of today and how much of what happened at Odessa can be understood”.

Florin Iepan is not dealing for the first time with Romania’s history. In 2005 he made Children of the Decree (Născuţi la comandă. Decreţeii), in which he explored the effects of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Decree 770, that banned birth control and abortion in his attempt to repopulate the nation.

Asking him if he thinks Romanians are still interested in their past, Iepan replyed with certainty: “of course. But at the same time i think we’re inclined to have a selective interest. There are dark controversial moments in our history that we chose to ignore as if these weren’t ours”.

I also asked him what does he want to accomplish with this documentary. Just another history lesson? Iepan answered: “No way. We have enough teachers for this. I try a reconciliation with the fascist past of my country, I try to reveal the means that led to Odessa tragedy and I also want to see how much of these are among us today. I’m planning to launch a national debate on this subject, i want to set us free from this burden”.

Iepan also mentioned that he’s pleased with how the debate held on the last evening of One World Film Festival went and admitted that this is only the first one. There will be others too.
I wanted to find out the actual date when his documentary will be released. The director only said that “on this October it will be 70 years from the Odessa tragedy”.

He couldn’t choose only five documentaries from all time but he could name four from recent years that impressed him: “Anvil. The Story of Anvil”, “Blokada”, “Exit through the Giftshop” and “Rabbit a la Berlin”.