Metrobranding / 13 decembrie / 20h00 / Centrul Ceh

DOCUMENTARY MONDAYS
un eveniment Centrul Ceh sustinut de Pilsner Urquell

romanian objects of desire

Daca “vesticii” erau obisnuiti sa aleaga dintre sute de branduri, in Romania oamenii traiau o cu totul alta experienta: o singura marca pentru fiecare produs. De aici si importanta pe care aceste monobranduri au avut-o in vietile celor care le realizau dar si a celor care le foloseau.

trailer aici

Metrobranding, Romania, 2010, 90 min.
Scenariul și regia: Ana Vlad si Adrian Voicu
Producator: Anca Puiu
VO romana / Subtitrari: engleza

Salteaua Relaxa, tenisii de Dragasani, bicicleta Pegas, motocicleta Mobra, becul de Fieni si masina de cusut Ileana, odata staruri ale epocii de aur, sunt personajele filmului. Aceste cinci branduri au avut destine spectaculoase. Au aparut aproximativ in acelasi timp, odata cu industrializarea socialista, si in timp ce in jurul fabricilor care le produceau rasareau orase peste noapte, brandurile respective deveneau obiecte de cult in visele si in viata de zi cu zi a fiecarui roman.
Filmul va folosi materiale de arhiva din perioada comunista si reclame color ale acestor monobranduri. Filmul exploreaza si exploateaza glumele autentice din folclorul popular facute pe seama lor. Pentru Mobra: “Moarte sigura cu cobra dar mai sigura cu Mobra”, pentru aspiratoarele Record: “Toata lumea e de acord cu un aspirator record” sau pentru tenisii de Dragasani: “Orasul asta e asa tacut pentru ca toata lumea umbla-n tenisi”. Ce s-a ales de destinul acestor branduri, de oamenii din jurul lor si de orasele mici industriale pe care le sustineau? Exista viata dupa moarte pentru brandurile socialiste? Raspunsul este partial pozitiv, unele au supravietuit eroic. Si azi mai vedem oameni mergand la fabrici cu Mobre reconditionate si biciclete Pegas. Filmarile au avut loc in orasele care produceau aceste branduri si care au imprumutat pana si numele lor. Altadata mandria Romaniei socialiste, aceste orase si-au pierdut complet identitatea, odata cu disparitia produselor. Un final trist pentru o poveste de dragoste ai carei protagonisti erau brandurile celebre de odinioara si oamenii din orasele mici, care astazi traiesc in umbra acestor produse.

ENGLISH VERSION

A love story between men and objects.

While people in  Western Europe  were  used to choose between hundreds of brands, the communist Romania used to have a different experience: all our life we lived with only one brand for each basic product. Imagine the importance that this “monobrands” could acquire for the lives of those who made them and for the lives of those who consumed them. Relaxa the mattress, Dragasani sneakers, Pegas the bicycle, Mobra the motorcycle, the Fieni bulbs and Ileana the sewing machine, which were once the stars of the Romanian golden era,  are now becoming the characters of our film. These five brands had  spectacular destinies. They appeared approximately at the same time, along with the socialist industrialization. As overnight towns were built around the factories producing them, they have become the objects of desire for the Romanian daily life and dreams. Through the film, we will meet the people who created, worked and lived with these objects and they will tell us about the way these products defined their life. We will hear production line stories from the people making the Pegas bicycles and rockets for Iran, using the same materials and the same machines. We will also hear day-to-day life and death stories, as the story of this woman we met in Mizil, who worked since she was 15 years old with the Relaxa mattress factory. This  product’s popularity at that time even generated a current saying: “If you want to enjoy your wife, buy Relaxa for all your life”. She received her own mattress as a wedding gift, she shared it with her husband, gave birth on it and after the revolution she divorced and kept the mattress for herself. This is one of the many stories revealed by our film. The brands we chose are bricks for constructing the  “homo consumer romanicus” portrait of  that time, from head to toes, from electrical Fieni bulbs to Dragasani shoes. The film will use archive materials from the communist period and color commercials made for these monobrands. It will also explore the popular subculture  surrounding  these objects, like the jokes people invented and told each other in everyday life. For the motorcycle Mobra: “Certain death due to a  cobra but more certain due to a  Mobra”,  for the vacuum cleaner Record: “Everybody is a winner with Record vacuum cleaner”, for Dragasani shoes: “This town is so silent because everybody wears Dragasani sneakers”. Destinies of people and  brands – what has become of these products? Is there a life after death for these socialist brands? Some are tough  survivors, as we have met a lot of people still riding on to the factories on repaired Mobras and Pegas; on the other hand  we had a strange surprise while trying  to find the Dragasani shoe in the Dragasani town. Even if the shoes  were supposed to last a lifetime, nobody in the town could find one. After a long-lasting quest, the local priest finally gave us a call: he was very happy to announce us that he found the last pair of Dragasani shoes in the attic of a farmer. The film’s setting is made of the  towns where these brands were made and  after which the brands were named; nowadays,  these towns –  once a pride of socialist Romania – completely  lost  their identity in parallel with the extinction of the products. A sad end for this love story of which partners were  once big brands in small towns and which have now become big shadows of the brands and small destinies.

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