Elena Ceausescu, Doctor Horroris Causa

‘A history without a tyrant is like a zoo without hyenas.‘ This statement by the Rumanian/French philosopher Emile Cioran, specialist in the dark side of life, is the motto of a film about Elena Ceausescu. As the wife of Nicolae Ceausescu she managed to obtain excessive power behind the scenes of their Bucharest palace between 1965 and 1989. Rumour has it that she was the driving force behind her husband, who was popularly nicknamed ‘the mute’ (because of his speech impediment) or with equal cynicism ‘the genius of the Carpathians’. The film unravels the history of Rumania after World War II, when the country became a puppet state of the Soviet Union and monarchy was abolished. Apart from interviews with historians and intellectuals, the film also uses a lot of archive footage. ELENA CEAUSESCU - DOCTOR HORRORIS CAUSA was entirely shot in Rumania, with a Rumanian crew, but the film has never been screened there due to its touchy theme.