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European Theatre Festival Eurothalia

September 28, 2023, 4 p.m.-7 p.m., House of European Institutes, Galeria 1, Bastion

I wanted the afternoon to never end

by Mihai Lukács

Essay-video projection

6pm: Artist Talk Mihai Lukács

Language: Romanian (with English translations) 


Starting from some written pages and testimonies about Bondy Horovitz - a Jewish survivor of the Transnistrian camps and later a professor at the Polytechnic Institute in Timișoara - Mihai Lukács tries to understand why he committed suicide in 1970. There is a wave of suicides committed by Holocaust survivors some 25 years after the event, a notable example being Primo Levi. Mihai Lukács learned more about the forgotten Bondy from Miriam Bercovici last year. Bondy writes the beginning and end of Mrs Bercovici's diary from her teenage years in Transnistria, an important document for understanding the Romanian Holocaust, now in the Holocaust Museum in Washington. So the filmmaker tried to find out what happened to Bondy in Timisoara after her return from the camp and to tell part of his story. As he wrote at the end of that diary: "In the space of two years - unfortunately - fate took giant steps over me. I know more about life than if I had lived a hundred years." The title of the project is also inspired by a phrase he wrote a week before his deportation to Transnistria. The essay-video is also a personal reflection on the memory of the city and the Holocaust survivors who lived there.

The screening lasts 30 minutes and can be viewed from 16.00 - 18.00

Project supported by the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Project Centre, within the ENERGIE! Artistic Creation Grants.

Perspectives?