Gabriel Barta

The Catastrophe

This is one of hundreds of so-called „ephemeral” films produced by the documentary studio in the wake of serious accidents on Romania’s roads. As was always the case in such films, the guilty party is the driver himself – one of the aims of this category of film was to assign unequivocal guilt. Yet, what makes this coarse lesson, brought to life by actors and non-professionals, more relevant today than it was at the time of its production is its ability to capture more than the event itself and thereby to provide us with a glimpse of the period in which it was produced.

3x3=…?

A playful representation of the snobbery of communist middle class parents, for whom grades are more important than the real interest in their children's needs and curiosities.

3x3=…?

A playful representation of the snobbery of communist middle class parents, for whom grades are more important than the real interest in their children's needs and curiosities.

Little Ones Describe the Big World

Little Ones Describe the Big World is not so much relevant as a sample of the directorial work of filmmaker Gabriel Barta as much as it is as an example of the early writing of one of Romania’s most peculiar and prolific writers, Radu Cosașu, who, at the time, worked closely with the Sahia studio after going through a difficult patch with the political establishment. The film is structured through the father-daughter dialogue written by Cosașu to lend colour and a narrative to the aforementioned exhibition. The style of his writing combines the wit, irony, and casual tone that have become his trademark: here, however, these qualities are put to work for the benefit of the socialist state’s political agenda.