1916

As part of the events marking the Centenary of the Great Union, "1916" reconstructs the image of the First World War. Directed and dramatised by Alexandru Berceanu, "1916" is based on the novel of the same name by Felix Aderca - held to be "an admirable evocation of the war and of the events that came just after it" (Eugen Lovinescu), "close to a masterpiece" (Tudor Vianu). The production offers a broad fresco of Romanian society during the First World War and between the wars. Its main source is the author's own direct experience of the fighting. Aderca took part in Romania's campaign in the First World War (1916-1918) and was decorated with the "Medal for Bravery and Faith" for heroic conduct in the field; he carried the subject of the war within him for almost two decades. The years between the events he lived through and the publication of the book allowed his impressions to settle and clarify, and let him look back on them with detachment, without excess of pathos. The experience of war is a recurring theme in Aderca's work. 1916 describes in parallel the two "fronts" on which its central character fights: an outer front, that of the war, and an inner one, where a battle is fought between a father's love and a son's betrayal.