Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man

When the Soviet Army marched into Romania in 1944, a part of the Romanian population went “into the mountains” – a diverse assortment of nationalists and fascists, liberals, apolitical farmers and members of the middle-class, who were affected by the Communists’ expropriations. Over a thousand armed resistance groups took refuge in the inaccessible forests of the Carpathian Mountains where they waited in vain for the support of the Western Allies. One of them was led by Ion Gavrilă-Ogoranu, who managed to remain undetected until 1976 when he was arrested. This film depicts the daily existence of this group. It tells the story of a struggle that became an end in itself, as the enemy was constantly in pursuit and arrest meant torture and often liquidation. Hungry and emotionally withdrawn, the group of young men got entangled in a partisan war that could not be won, lost in the landscape of the South Carpathians, accompanied by a vigilant secret police, the Securitate.

7.1

163 min

Cast

Constantin Diţă

as Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu

Ionuţ Caras

as Gheorghe Haşiu

Catalin Babliuc

as Ion Chiujdea

Ion Bechet

as Nelu Novac

Vasile Calofir

as Andrei Haşiu

Constantin Lupescu

as Ion Ilioi

Dan Bordeianu

as Victor Metea

Alexandru Potocean

as Toma Pirău

Alin Mihalache

as Gheorghe Şovăială

Radu Iacoban

as Gelu Novac

Bogdan Dumitrache

as Laurian Hasiu - Leu

Bogdan Dumitrescu

as Jean Pop - Fileru

Ingrid Bisu

as Matilda Jubleanu

Emanuel Pârvu

Silviu Dudescu

as Cpt. Suru

Director

Constantin Popescu Jr.