The Neatly Stitched Button Day
The Neatly Stitched Button Day was directed by Slavomir Popovici at the beginning of his employment at the Sahia studio; it may be his first work after being hired. Surprisingly though, Popovici does not appear in the credits even with the Romanian-ised name that he adopted for the documentary films produced at the beginning of his career: Miron Slavu (the name included on the credits of How Do We Follow the Rules of the Road?, 1963).
Over time, this topic gained a reputation among Popovicir’s former studio colleagues, possibly due to the subversive potential its ambiguous title held at the time: a day dedicated to the neatly-stitched buttons may well be an encouragement of the self-sufficiency expected of students, just as it could be an ironic nod to the celebratory fanaticism of a political regime that organised time between one political anniversary and another. (AB)