Written by Rapciuc Codruț ©2022

Preface
This little magazine was realized as a project for
the course entitled “English for the media”. In the
following pages the reader will be introduced to the
tree of the most important cultural events in the
city of Iași. As a junior student at the University of
Alexandru Ioan Cuza” of Iași, I have tried to capture
the cultural beauty of this city from the perspective
of a young adult. It is important to consider that I
don’t have the expertise of a cultural journalist, so
is advised to take the quality of this magazine with
an pinch of salt.
“The most important literary festival in Eastern Europe”
-El País
 This year’s edition had taken place between 19 and 23 of oc-
tober at Unions Square, this place being a staple of FILIT’s
identity. On the first day of the festival I had the great opportu-
nity to interview Adrian Cioroianu, who gave a speech along-
side two other great writers, Remus Boldea and Dan Perșa.

Adrian Cioroianu is a writer, historian, a

journalist, but by far is known as a politician
by the general public. Also he was the host
of the TV show “5 Minute de istorie”. At FILIT,
Adrian was launching a new book entitled
“Zece povestiri”. A book co-written by him and
another nine authors, like Bogdan Coșa or Miruna Vlada.
The book contains ten stories, each written by a different au-
thor,stories who are related to one of ten photos. Photos which
show different situations related to the Iași progrom. The Iași
pogrom was the most massive and violent killing of jews in
Romania, which took place between 27 and 30 of June 1941.
In the following lines you will see the interview that I had
with Adrian Cioroianu, which was translated in english.

Reporter: Ok, in the first place I would like to know why you had chosen
Iași?

Adrian Cioroianu: When it comes to Iași, you don’t choose it, it chooses
you. I was born in the city of Craiova, and for us it is a very important
city. Iași is still the cultural capital of our nation. When Bucharest be-
came the capital city of Romania, in 1862, Iași still remained the cultur-
al and spiritual capital of the newly founded country. For us writers and
professors who are passionate about the humanities, Iași is a city you
always revisit.

R: The common romanian knows you more as an political figure, or in

other cases as an historian. What book would you recommend for such
 an person, so that he can know the writer Adrian Cioroianu.

A.C: Hmm… , it’s hard to say because for an author all of his titles are
important. I would invite such a person to go to any bookstore and try to
read one of my books. Luck is an important thing in the lives of everyone.
I myself have found authors not by their good books, this kind of thing
can come by chance.

R: Teens nowadays have lost the pleasure to read…

A.C: Yes, it’s true.

R: What advice do you have for this kind of a teen?

A.C: I don’t believe that my advice will be helpful. But, the core of this
problem comes from the fact that this generation doesn’t have any con-
tact with fairy tales. The reading of this kind of story is crucial in the
early years of childhood. We, the people who are in the field of Letters,
have had an exposure to children’s stories from an early age, a thing that
helped us to understand our world’s literature.

R: How did you come to the title “Cu fața la zid” ?

A.C: This title comes from a photograph which shows ten people facing a
wall, held by gunpoint, on an important street of Iași.Those people were
romanian-jews. So this title should be taken literally and metaphorically
at the same time. This photograph had left a mark on me and therefore I
had chosen to write this story.

After the interview, he gave me a copy of his book which was

signed ”Lui Codruț, cu prietenie și urări de succes!”, which translates
to “For Codruț with friendship and good luck wishes”. So this was
my experience at FILIT, even though it was short,I believe this
festival is something worth living, seeing and writing about it.
 On the 30th of November, I had the great pleasure to go to the
“Zilele Teatrului Național”, a festival which took place between
30th of November to 4th of December. The first day of the fes-
tival started with an conference entitled “Strategii și politici cul-
turale în actualul context european”. Conference held by Aura
Corbeanu, acting teacher at University of Arts from Târgu Mureș
and vice president of UNITER, “Uniunea Teatrală din România”.

The main point of the conference was presenting the prob-

lems faced by the European Union like inflation, high-
er energy prices and the ukrainian war, and how they
are affecting the cultural aspects of romanian life.

After this event, they were

two performances, “Sin-
dromul Quijote” and “Familia
Cenci”. Today I would like to
talk a little bit about the last
one. “Familia Cenci” trans-
lated by George Banu and
directed by Silviu Purcărete,
is a piece which shows the
hardships of the Cenci fam-
ily. Hardships caused by the
head of the family Frances-
co Cenci and suffered by his
children, this tyranny comes
to an end with the plotting
of Beatrice Cenci. A plot
which causes a tragic end-
ing. I would not reveal more,
because I want that you the
reader to come and see the
fantastic performance of
Génica Athanasiou and the
other members of the cast.
 And this was my short but certainly worth living cultural ex-
pierence. I realize that by going only on two cultural events, I
cannot see the full picture, but for sure was a fascinating sneak-
peak on the cultural life of Iași. I advise everyone to go and
keep alive this side of public life, because it’s crucial for our in-
dentity. Go to the teather, the opera, book openings! Meet the
artist, musicians and writters who still keep culture alive, and
who knows, maybe one day you can become one of them, or a
crucial part of cultural life by becoming an cultural jurnalist.

FILIT and “Zilele Teatrului Național” are not the only cultur-
al events. Iași is a sprouling city when it comes to this kind of
events, every day something new can pop now out of nowere,
so stay ready for everithing. This can be finest quality of city.
I don’t have any ownership of any of the images shown
in this magazine, besides the design of the cover of it.
All rights reserved to the original creators of them.

Rapciuc Codruț ©2022