Fighting with the Blizzard
The report Fighting with the Blizzard—which also circulated in cinemas under the title The Blizzard – took up a double issue (6-7) of the newsreel. Directed by Mirel Ilieșiu, it was filmed during the harsh days of February 1954, when Romania experienced an immense blizzard that hit the capital especially severely, as well as the eastern and southeastern regions of the country. The storm unfolded in three distinct episodes: February 1-4, February 17-19, and February 22-24.
On the morning of the 4th February, the Council of Ministers of the RPR radio broadcast an official announcement, which was picked up the next day by Scânteia, the official Party newspaper, informing all able-bodied citizens of their duty to help clear the streets of snow and assist in the national effort to supply the population with food. The blizzard served as an opportunity to mobilize citizens against the forces of nature, as would be the case later on during the major floods of 1970. Ilieșiu’s film captures the dramatic national mobilization created by the blizzard. Produced by the Sahia studio, the film uses footage shot by cinematographers affiliated with both the documentary and fiction studios. Among those involved were Ovidiu Gologan, Willy Goldgraber, Jean Michel, Francisc Patakfalvi, Paul Holban, and Gheorghe Feher.
In the summer of 1954, this piece was presented at the Karlovy Vary Festival, along with a selection of Romanian films. Although it won an award in the short reportage category, the film garnered little attention in the domestic press, with only a few brief reviews.
We have included an excerpt from the copy available at the National Film Archive, which features a voice-over commentary in Russian. This serves as evidence, as expected, of the international circulation of this particular newsreel in Soviet Russia and likely other countries within the Eastern Bloc. The excerpt is presented with subtitles in both Romanian and English (CC- located in the bottom right-hand corner of the player). (AB)
