New Europe (2007) s01e03 Episode Script

(BAND PLAYING LIVELY MUSIC)
(MAN SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE 0VER PA)
(S0LDIERS SH0UTING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
(S0LDIERS CHANTING)
(BAND RESUMES PLAYING)
PALIN: Natlonal Day In Tlraspol,
the capltal of Transdnlester,
a place most people have never heard of.
It's actually a breakaway state
of the Republlc of Moldova,
another place most people
have never heard of,
whlch makes me doubly glad to be here.
Well, I've never witnessed anything
quite like this before!
A national day parade
for a nation that doesn't exist!
This is Transdniester!
They have their own army,
they have their own currency,
but no single other country in the world
recognises them!
But today, they recognise themselves!
Transdnlester, llterally,
across the Dnlester Rlver,
conslsts of 4,000 square kllometres
and just over half a mllllon people.
Oh, and a hellcopter.
When the old Sovlet Republlc of Moldova
won Independence In 1 99 1,
those on the east bank
of the Dnlester Rlver felt let down.
The majorlty of them were Slavs.
They used the Russlan language
and the Russlan alphabet,
whereas the rest of Moldova
spoke Romanlan, a Latln language.
So, In 1 992, after a short clvll war,
the Transdnlestrans declared themselves
Independent,
whlch Is what today's festlvltles
are all about.
(W0MAN SINGING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
These people want so much
to remaln Russlan,
that, In most of thelr llfetlmes,
It looks Increaslngly unllkely
that the rlft wlth Moldova
wlll ever be repalred.
After crosslng the Dnlester,
I shall pass through the rest of Moldova
Into northern Romanla,
south to Transylvanla and Bucharest,
then onto the Danube.
I'm coming into Chisinau,
the capital of Moldova!
This was once the far southwestern
corner of the mighty Soviet Union!
Now it's a tiny independent country
trying to find its place
on the new map of Europe!
Chlslnau Is not wlthout lts problems,
but flrst lmpresslons are of a llkeable,
surprlslngly verdant, easy-golng clty.
I take a walk In the park wlth
Tatlana Tlbuleac, a local journallst,
and, for a moment,
It's llke stepplng back In tlme.
(BRASS BAND PLAYING LIVELY MUSIC)
This is a place where, actually,
old people come,
but you can see today
it's not only old people coming!
- I think lonely people are coming here!
- Yeah!
This is a place
where they can be not so lonely!
Because you can see here,
they are pensioners!
Most of them retired persons,
living alone with a very small pension!
Some of them,
they are just left alone, you know?
- They are not rich!
- Yeah!
They just have
very poor conditions in life!
- Yeah!
- And what they do every Sunday,
they just put
a nice dress on themselves,
make a little bit of make-up,
you know, put medals, nice suits,
and they're coming here
just to meet each other!
PALIN: They can dance with anyone here,
can they?
TATIANA: A lot of love stories
started here, you know?
PALIN: They're quite old, some of them!
- They're almost my age, you know!
- Yes!
(EXCLAIMING) That's not old!
(PLAYING TANG0 MUSIC)
TATIANA: You can come here for
a good dose of optimism for your week!
- You know?
- Yeah!
TATIANA: You see when
a man doesn't want to dance,
a lady should have more courage!
Well, come on, then!
- Will you be able to lead?
- Ah, well, let's see what we can do!
- 0h, dear! There we go!
- 0h, he's not so bad!
Should I just watch everyone else?
Is there much regret at the passing
of the old Soviet Union?
Do people feel nostalgic at all here
for those days?
Actually, a lot!
If you would ask
all these people you see here,
they would start crying
and they would say, "We want back!"
Young generation,
they are not so nostalgic,
but we didn't even get too much
from the Soviet period!
I think people miss not the regime,
they miss jobs, they miss pensions,
they miss, I don't know,
cheap food and good vacations!
I also miss Soviet period! You know why?
Because I was young
and I had my parents alive!
If this means to miss the Soviet Union,
yes, I miss,
because I was a child,
I had my grandparents!
I went to all these places,
everything seems to be so beautiful!
But now, logically,
of course I'm so happy that is not here
and I be!!! I speak with you today!
Twenty years ago, this would be a crime!
I would probably have a file now
if you would come and I would tell you
all these things, you know?
And this is important to know
and to keep in mind always!
And everybody
is nostalgic for something,
but it's important to be realistic
at one point!
You miss the sensation of something,
you miss the smell or the taste,
but you cannot miss something
which killed
and made unhappy so many generations!
Tatlana also helps run
the UNICEF operatlon In Moldova,
and tomorrow she's golng to take me
to a vlllage outslde the capltal
to see thelr work In actlon.
Moldova Is the poorest country
In Europe,
and many In the countryslde
can only support thelr famllles
by worklng abroad.
Those left behlnd are easy prey
for drug dealers and people trafflckers.
Wlth the help of UNICEF,
the chlldren of thls vlllage
have put on a play
to make people aware
of the dangers that they face.
What's the!!!
What are they attempting to show
and deal with here?
It's a story about trafficking!
So, here's a typical Moldovan village!
People wake up to go to work,
probably you'll see the field!
Trafficking is a big issue
in Moldova, actually,
because a quarter of the population
is out, mainly women,
- Working illegally!!!
- Abroad!
TATIANA: Yes, abroad!
These are people who went abroad
and now are coming back to recruit
people for prostitution, for begging!
Actually, they probably lived
in the same village for many years,
and now they come here
because people, they trust them,
because if you live with somebody
20 years, you trust that person!
And, actually,
these are the main traffickers!
PALIN: Local people
coming back to their own village!
TATIANA: Yes! Local people!
People coming back!
They promise them $200-300 per month,
and, for them, this is huge money!
Every time you think
that this will not happen to you!
You hope, at least,
that this will not happen to you!
PALIN: And there she's going to be
- Given a drug! Drugged!
- So this is already
somewhere in Italy, maybe, or in Moscow!
They have to beg!
They take their papers,
they leave them in streets,
or in a room for years and years!
They usually!!! See,
he injected some drugs into the girl!
This is what is happening!
Actually, they are living like
three, four, five years, drugged
- And being forced to prostitute!
- Yeah, addicted to the drug!
TATIANA: When they come back!!!
We have a lot of cases here!
They need years to recover!
Actually, children are very expressive!
Imagine that every second
has parents abroad!
PALIN: What, every second child here!!!
TATIANA: Every second child acting
has parents abroad!
Maybe they didn't see them for years!
You know, five years, six years!
They just receive money from them!
PALIN: Maybe that's why they're so good!
They've just seen it on people's faces!
I mean, it's the look on the faces,
it's so intense
and it's full of feeling,
isn't it, really?
It's very moving!
What you're doing here, the play,
does it do any good at all if people
are just going to go anyway?
Do you think it does change minds?
Yeah, I think the main thing,
the main message is
that they inform them, you know?
Now they can know
that things like these can happen!
You should very careful
with who you are talking!
Who is taking you abroad?
You know, this is!!!
We want to do through this,
and they are doing, actually!!!
0f course, people will go,
but they will ask themselves 1 0 times
what they're doing,
with who they're doing it, you know?
So what's happening now?
She's being sold!!!
What sort of money
is involved when they're sold?
- Do you know?
- Up to 5,000!
But for this money, she will have
to work years and years in prostitution!
Years and years!
We had cases when women were telling us
that they'd been forced
- To sleep with 40 men per day!
- Yeah!
Young girls like 1 8 years old!
This is a tragedy!
It's appalling, yeah!
In the end, good defeats bad,
and those who were selzed
escape thelr tormentors
and return to the vlllage.
It's been a movlng performance to watch,
but Tatlana remalns a reallst.
TATIANA: It's a beautiful, happy end!
In life is not always like this!
PALIN: (CHUCKLING) No!
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Desplte all lts problems,
Moldova Is far from depresslng,
and Chlslnau contlnues to surprlse me.
Under the Communlst reglme
the arts were always encouraged,
provlded they dldn't questlon
the party llne,
so there's always a chance of stumbllng
across an experlmental sculpture park,
Ilke thls one here,
whlch turns out to be just round
the corner from a houslng block
speclally bullt to provlde studlos
for worklng artlsts.
Llka, a chlldren's book Illustrator,
shows me one of them.
And I step Into a world whlch nothlng
qulte prepared me for.
(M0LD0VAN MUSIC PLAYING 0N STERE0)
Belleve It or not,
thls Is an 87-year-old man.
Llka's dad.
Does he make!!!
Does your father
make all the masks himself?
- Yes!
- Right! Yeah!
The man behlnd the mask
Is Gloebus Salnculc,
one of the best-known artlsts
In Moldova.
Did he always used to do
- Shows like this?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah!
- Yeah!
- But he!!!
He calls it a theatre of one spectator!
Right! Yeah!
You see, he's a theatre of one actor,
- But he's a theatre!!!
- Theatre of one spectator!
Yeah, yeah!
He doesn't like many people
being crowded!
- It's few people and he shows them!
- I like that!
I like that, "Theatre of one spectator!"
- Not going to get!!!
- It's very live, you see!
I'm not sure if you show it,
it will be all right,
for it's live, you see?
Like jazz, it should be seen live!
Yeah, yeah! No, it's good!
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Gloebus has been maklng faces
for 50 years,
but It's the blg stars
that really seem to attract hlm.
Though Pavarottl's usually a blt
blgger than thls.
Yeah, very convincing!
You really must ask him!
There's a llfetlme's work here,
provldlng a fasclnatlng archlve
of the polltlclans and celebrltles
of the Sovlet era
wlth whom Gloebus grew up.
PALIN: Were there good things
about the Soviet system for an artist?
LIKA: I don't think!
You see, people had a hope somehow,
but now they don't!
That's the difference!
They hoped that they will have
an apartment
in 20 years, in 50 years!
That after 1 00 years,
they will build Communism!
Basically, a foolish hope, you see?
But some people lived with this,
with this hope!
- But now do you think!!!
- But now they should be more real!
- Real, no?
- But you can still have a hope!
- Now!
- No, we don't mean that!
Hope was fed by!!!
By the!!!
- The Party!
- By Party, yeah!
(DANCE MUSIC PLAYING 0N STERE0)
The Party would probably not have
approved of the partylng
that goes on every nlght
In the nlghtclubs of Chlslnau.
Through Tatlana, I meet Olga Maxlm,
who, at 1 6, left Moldova to study
as an actress In Romanla.
Though she now has a partner
and chlld there,
she comes home regularly
to vlslt her mother,
and suggests I mlght llke to go wlth her
and see a quleter slde of Moldovan llfe.
Her mother llves In a farmlng vlllage
an hour south of Chlslnau.
Yeah, I'm visiting her quite often!
0nce a month! We're coming every month!
0h, right!
You've brothers and sisters, too?
Yeah, I have a sister!
Olga's father dled seven years ago,
and her mother, Helena,
llves alone In the famlly house.
Mum's working!
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
- She's my mum!
- She wants you to do the work now!
- This is Michael!
- Hello, hello!
I should say hello!
What should I say, really?
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Very nice to meet you!
She's been very helpful to me!
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
But she is a crazy driver!
Llke many who've grown up In a world
of Communlst collectlves,
Helena has learnt the lmportance
of havlng somethlng of your own.
Does she have to buy any food at all,
or is she quite self-sufficient?
No, she doesn't buy anything!
She's growing everything in her garden!
- 0r she buys sugar or probably rice!
- Right!
I mean, for sure! But everything
that she grows in the garden
- She has in there!
- What are her luxuries?
I mean, what are things
that she'd like to spend her money on
apart from a new pair of garden gloves?
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
- Ah, yes! Chocolate!
- Chocolate!
Sweet things
that she cannot grow in the garden!
- 0h, that's good! Well!!!
- That she buys from the city!
Yeah, I'll remember that!
I'll have to get you a box of chocolate!
The rest, she has everything!
She has everything! She's growing
chickens and ducks and all this!
Helena gets up at 4.:00 every mornlng,
and when I look at her garden,
I can see why.
Mum wants to show you her garden!
Tomatoes! She grows tomatoes in here!
She grows all this herself
and picks them and all that?
- Yeah, yeah!
- And cultivates them?
Everything that she grows in here
is for herself!
Your family have lived here
for generations, on both sides!
- Yeah, yeah!
- Yeah!
What did your father do?
My father was a!!!
He had kind of ruling jobs, you know?
- First, he was!!!
- In politics?
- He was a Communist, actually!
- Yeah!
He was the!!! How they call it?
In the party!
In the Communist Party!
So he was kind of!!!
Most people were at that time,
were they not?
All of them! All the men in the village!
- She's picking like a maniac here!
- She's picking!
I love it, really! We natter on,
she's just really concerned
about getting the old strawbs!!!
Getting the raspberries in!
They're lovely!
What does she think about Moldova now?
I mean, does she think things
are going to get better or worse?
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
She says that!!!
Yeah, I think!!!
She thinks that things might go worse
because of the economic situation!
The salaries are very small
and the prices are growing!
For her it's enough!
She says, "For me, it's enough!
- "I have everything!"
- Yes, yes!
And for the other people
from the cities, especially,
the things might get worse because
of the economy, the level it's!!!
Does she sort of!!!
Is she nostalgic for the Communist time?
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
No? No!
Desplte thls,
I suspect It wlll be a long tlme
before new Europe changes the way
of llfe In the Moldovan countryslde.
Certalnly, the meal Helena treats us to
owes more to the old days.
- How is it?
- It's very nice, yes!
No, go on! Mmm!
And she's made the wlne as well.
But it must mean that!!!
- She wants to toast with you!
- A toast, oh, yes! Yes, well, thank you!
0kay! Cheers!
Here's to the Moldovan way of life,
Moldovan food,
to the best cook in Moldova!
(0LGA TRANSLATING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Are people more inclined now
towards Romania,
and, obviously, then
to the West and Europe?
After the separation,
they just remained alone, totally alone!
And Moldova has no industry!
It has nothing to live from, just land!
There you see, they are growing
vegetables and they are having this!
Actually, the Soviet Union
was calling Moldova the sunny country,
because everything here
was very natural!
The vegetables and the chicken
and everything
was growing natural from the land!
There was nothing,
chemicals or stuff like this!
Would you come back to live here?
In Moldova? Maybe when I am very old!
- Maybe!
- Maybe! There you are, you see?
A qualified person like yourself!!!
- Yeah!
- !!! You can't really work here!
Here In the south of Moldova,
old and new worlds meet
In qulte surreal clrcumstances.
(PLAYING DRUMS)
The country's top group, Zdob sl Zdub,
much Influenced by folk muslc,
has come here speclally
to re-unlte wlth a gypsy lady,
known and loved by all as "Grandma".
(PLAYING P0P MUSIC)
(SINGING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Grandma won Internatlonal fame
banglng the drum for Moldova
In the 2005 Eurovlslon Song Contest.
They came slxth.
Well, we've now left Moldova
and we're in Moldavia!
Moldova is a separate country,
as you know!
Moldavia is a part of Romania!
It's confusing, I know,
but it's very, very beautiful!
In the foothllls
of the Carpathlan Mountalns,
largely protected from maraudlng armles
and polltlcal commlssars,
are some of the least changed
communltles In Europe.
Rellglon remalns the focus of local llfe
and the churches are works of art.
The walls of thls one,
the monastery at Moldovlta,
are covered, Inslde and out,
wlth frescoes palnted 500 years ago.
These ones here are a graphlc account
of the slege of Constantlnople,
wlth Chrlstlan armles
desperately flghtlng off the Turks.
It's llke medlaeval news footage.
Every single wall is covered!
Yes, every square inch we can say
is covered with paintings!
- What we see around here, this is!!!
- This is rather grand!
This is Last Judgment scene!
Always at the entrance to remind people
about how important it is
to take care of their next lives!
Carollna Is my gulde to thls
extraordlnary Byzantlne masterplece.
Behind that wall would be the altar,
where no men of other religion
and no women are ever allowed to go in!
- Yeah!
- Except nuns, sometimes!
The wall here is called the icon wall,
or the iconostasis,
which is one of the most marvellous
parts of this church,
- Basically!
- Beautiful, isn't it?
- Is that gold leaf or gold or!!!
- Yes!
It's gold, yeah!
It's carved in wood
and it's covered with gold!
Yeah, yeah!
- And they're still working?
- And they're still working on it, yes!
- Gosh, that is such detail!
- They've been painting it in!
Yeah, so much detail! So time consuming!
- How long have they been working?
- Just over 1 5 years now!
It's about 700 euro per square metre
to clean it!
For centurles,
thls has been a hldden gem,
but In the new Europe,
It could be tourlst gold.
(BELL T0LLING)
In the mountalns
of the Maramures reglon,
It's All Souls' Day,
and If evldence were needed
as to why Communlst athelsm
made so llttle headway here,
Iook no further than thls churchyard.
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
The graveyard In the vlllage of leud
Is packed wlth famllles
here to remember thelr loved ones.
The prlest blesses each grave In turn.
Candles are llt
and bread speclally baked.
Ionut, a local student, tells me why.
This is one of the most important
days of the year!
Yeah!
Because this is the day
when we celebrate death!
Right! Remember the dead!
Yes, just like we celebrate the birth,
the wedding,
and this is the day
when we remember the dead!
(PRIEST SINGING)
It's not just relatlves
of the llvlng who are remembered.
Any member of a famlly
who has dled In the past 200 years
can have thelr name read out.
It's a touchlng lmage of the power
of remembrance and contlnulty,
and surely helps to make the work of the
Grlm Reaper seem a llttle less grlm.
After the Mass,
I walked through the vlllage wlth Ionut
and hls father Flllmon
who've Invlted me back to thelr house
to carry on the celebratlons.
Meanwhlle, wlth the dead remembered,
the llvlng go back to work.
Desplte the beauty of the countryslde,
llfe here Is hard,
and the way to flnd rellef
from the dally grlnd
Is usually wlth strong drlnk
and a good knees-up.
I fear that Ionut and Flllmon
are no exceptlons.
Wlth Ionut's mother keeplng
a beady eye out In the background,
the flrst of several toasts Is ralsed.
Cheese and sausage Is on the table
and In the glass, pallnka,
a flery eau de vle
made from apples and pears.
And wlth an awful Inevltablllty,
one thlng leads to another.
(PLAYING TRADITl0NAL MUSIC)
And another.
(SINGING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Why can't they just have afternoon tea
llke anyone else?
Next mornlng,
I flnd myself and my hangover
aboard a horse and cart,
along wlth Clara,
whom I'd met last nlght at the party.
We're In the town of Sapanta,
and perhaps approprlately,
In vlew of how I feel,
on our way to another cemetery.
PALIN: Are we here?
CLARA: Yeah, we're here!
We're going to stop here!
But one, as they say, wlth a dlfference.
Most of the graves are decorated
by local artlst Stan Patras.
PALIN: It's nice that all!!!
I mean, the usual of symbols of death,
the skulls and the Grim Reaper,
they don't have those!
It's life! I mean, this one here!!!
- Yeah, this one, it's very!!!
- What's that?
CLARA: This one is not so sad, actually!
Here it's about a very happy man
who lived a very happy life!
He loved to drink wine and palinka
and to entertain women, you know?
So he's had a happy life!
When did he die?
Did he die when he was!!!
- He died when he was!!!
- Eighteen?
No, they don't say the age exactly!
But he lived a very happy life,
so I think he dies very happily!
- So!!!
- I quite like that!
I'd like that on my grave, actually!
Much better than saying,
"Here lies so-and-so!"
You could have a little picture of me!
- Yeah, it's an idea to!!!
- Wouldn't you?
Some bit of your life celebrated
rather than!!!
- Yeah!
- You know, rather!!!
Just the word "died here"
and all the rather grim stuff,
- Celebrate life!
- Yeah, yeah, I think it's very nice!
And the people are much more enjoyable
when they read that about you
and what you did!
- That's what you want to remember!
- 0f course!
CLARA: Some of them, they are,
let's say happy, cheery,
but some of them, they are quite,
I think sad, let's say!
Yes, accidents!
This one here, for instance!
So it's a bittersweet combination!
- What's that? What does that say?
- Yeah, this one is also!!!
Yeah, this is sad! It's a little kid,
and it's about a cab driver
which drove a cab!
And the girl wondered,
"Why that cab should stop
near the house and kill me?
"From all this country
he couldn't find another place
"but next to our house where I was
living and stayed by, nearby?"
And the cab killed her!
- Then she's also!!!
- That describes what happened?
Yeah, that describes over there
how it happened,
how the cab drove into the fence
and killed the little girl!
PALIN: It's an odd combination,
isn't it?
'Cause you feel an awful accident
and a little dead girl there,
and yet somehow that makes it kind of!!!
Takes the curse off it somehow!
- Yeah, yeah, yeah!
- Celebrates her short life!
That's true! Yeah!
They call thls the Merry Cemetery
and I can see why.
There's no better place than thls
to learn about the paln, pleasure
and the preoccupatlons of llfe
In Maramures.
It's a reglon that's not overflowlng
wlth job opportunltles.
But the forest, hlgh above
one of lts most remote valleys,
has, for many years,
provlded local men wlth work.
It's Monday morning
and I'm joining the train
which takes about 80 lumberjacks
up into the forest!
No comment!
- Morning!
- MEN: Morning!
Hi!
Well, I don't have a ticket!
- Do I need a ticket?
- No, no!
(CHUCKLING) No?
Just need an interest in trees!
The more beautlful It gets,
the colder It gets,
and the only heatlng's In the englne.
Thls Isn't luxury travel,
but they're lumberjacks, they're okay.
(MAN YELLING)
It may not look llke lt,
but thlngs have changed
for the Romanlan lumberjack.
The chalnsaw has replaced the axe,
and envlronmental concerns
have llmlted how much they can cut,
reduclng the work force by a flfth.
At lunch,
I'm Introduced to a local dellcacy,
very useful, I'm told,
for soaklng up pallnka.
What's this, by the way?
- This is slanina!
- Hmm?
- Slanina!
- What's that?
- It's like a lard!
- Looks like fat!
It's a fat! It's fat, yes!
It's from pig meat!
- Yeah!
- It's a pig!
And usually you take a bit of this,
and you must chill with!!!
- 0h, right! Do you?
- Yes, of course, let's do it!
- Is this very!!!
- You must trust in me!
- Very sort of typical of Maramures?
- Yes, typical of Maramures, yes!
PALIN: What do you do,
- You dip it in there?
- No, no, no, just biting!
(SPEAKING F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Cheers!
(T0ASTING IN F0REIGN LANGUAGE)
Quite salty and!!!
- MAN: It's not spicy! It's good!
- It's like fat, but I like it!
- Is like teacle?
- No, no, it's fine!
We used to have dripping
when I was young!
MAN: Yes?
In Sheffield, you'd have dripping
on bread! We'd have that!
But now, nobody!!!
0oh, nobody has it, you know?
It's kind of shocking!
Far too much sort of bad, you know,
sort of bad things for you,
but I think it's, um!!!
A little bit every now and then!
Havlng probably shortened my llfe
by a good few years,
It's tlme to leave thls otherwlse
dellghtfully clean
and healthy mountaln alr
and head south wlth the tlmber.
Well, I've come south from Maramures,
with its merry preoccupation
with the dead, to Transylvania,
with its a rather more sinister
preoccupation with the un-dead!
Thls Is Slghlsoara
In the very heart of Romanla,
and the word "heart"remlnds me
thls Is Dracula land.
The town was fortlfled by Saxons
from south Germany,
hence the Brothers Grlmm
falry-tale-llke appearance.
It was Intended as a bulwark agalnst
Invaders comlng through the Carpathlans,
Europe's last llne of defence.
Ioanna, my gulde, tells me the Germans
llved here happlly for centurles
but the Communlsts made them unwelcome
and now they've all left.
One of the most legendary flgures
In hlstory was born here,
and Is stlll remembered.
Ioanna has mlxed feellngs
about hls legacy.
(LAUGHING) They've really got!!!
They've got Dracula!!!
Look at all these!
Dracula has taken over your town!
Yes, this was the house
- Of Vlad Dracula!!!
- Yes, yes!
- !!! The father of Vlad the Impaler!
- I saw that!
Maybe he was born right here!
But who was he?
He was a great voivod!
- You know "voivod", the word?
- Voivod, no! What's a voivod?
- A prince!
- A prince! Yeah, yeah, yeah!
And a great leader!
He was quite a hero for the Romanian
people 'cause he fought the Turks!
- Yeah!
- A big hero, really!
He defended very well his people
and he beat the Turks!
He did a bit of impaling though,
didn't he? Wasn't very nice, was he?
- He stuck a big!!!
- Yes, but it was a good thing
- Because he loved justice!
- !!! Spike up people!
And it was a habit,
you know, all around!
Was it? Everybody was
impaling everybody else?
Yes!
We think the medieval times
are charming, don't we?
- This is Bram Stoker's work, isn't it?
- Yes, it is!
- He is the one responsible for this!
- Yes! Actually!!!
What do you think of all this?
These are for the kitchen,
don't you think?
- These ones I like!
- Yes, it's funny!
I like these especially!
- 0kay, then, buy them!
- Would you mind? Turn your back!
- No!
- Lf I just!!!
- I'll be your witness!
- !!! Keep the Dracula business going!
- Please buy them in front of me, okay?
- Can I?
Maybe I can have these two here!
(MUGS CLANKING)
- Whoops! There we are!
- Here!
A coffee for me and the wife!
That'll be very nice in the morning!
- 0r a cup of tea!
- Yeah, before impalings!
(B0TH LAUGHING)
Can we have those two?
Thank you very much!
- How much are they?
- 300!
- 0kay, 300!
- Yeah!
- It's good, this!
- 0kay, fine!
And if you want, I have a colleague
who is performing Count Dracula!
- The character of Bram Stoker!
- 0h, right!
Is he scary, your friend?
- Very!
- Very scary!
If you want to be scared, yeah!
Comblnlng hlstory
and local superstltlons,
the Irlsh wrlter Bram Stoker
created a character who's now
responslble for a tourlst Industry
that has brought wealth and car parks
to the gentle Transylvanlan countryslde.
Dracula's most bloodcurdllng deeds
were set here at Bran Castle.
It certalnly looks the part,
and stlll attracts
some pretty strange people.
- Welcome to my castle!
- Thank you!
- Come with me! Be my guest!
- Thank you!
Ioanna's frlend, Petre,
has to be one of them.
PALIN: He doesn't look well!
Come with me, my friends!
You first! No, you first!
(LAUGHING)
0h, dear!
Into the little passageway syndrome!
Bring the garlic!
A bit strange!
(LAUGHING SADISTICALLY)
It's death!
These rooms
were actually done up In the 1 920s
by Queen Marle, wlfe of Klng Carol,
when Romanla stlll had a royal famlly.
Sorry, sorry. Back to the story.
- All of the vampires!!!
- Girls!
(PALIN LAUGHING)
Shh, girl!
(EXCLAIMS)
Transylvania!
0h, Transylvania!
In Transylvania you can see
very strange things!
You're telllng me.
But I have more!
My revenge has begun!
I spied it over the century
and time is on my side!
I've seen a lot of Romanla's
unchanged rural byways,
and now It's tlme
to head for the capltal, Bucharest,
to flnd out how modern Romanla
has been shaped.
And, as happens on tralns,
I end up learnlng a thlng or two
on the way.
I couldn't help noticing
the book you're reading
is by Cioran, is it? Cioran?
- Yeah!
- Yeah, Cioran!
Because I was just reading my guidebook,
there's a great bit here
about Emil Cioran!
"The philosopher who published
On the Helghts of Despalr
"setting out
the nihilist anti-philosophy
"that the only valued thing to do
with one's life is to end it!
(LAUGHING)
"But continued to expound this view
until he was 84!"
Yes! Yeah, quite so! Yeah!
- So is he well known?
- It is! Actually, it is!
It is one of Romania's
biggest philosophers!
He is part of the golden generation
of the Romanian spirituality
built up between the wars!
Europeans seem to be able
to respect and admire philosophy
more than they do in England!
- Is that so?
- Really?
We don't really have great philosophers!
- Well, you have Shakespeare!
- People aren't interested!
You have Shakespeare,
Shakespeare explain everything!
- Yeah, maybe that's it!
- That's why! Yeah, yeah!
'Cause we have this conceit
in the West that we are Europe
and, of course, what I've discovered,
certainly from this journey,
is that it's not like that!
The culture, the history,
it's all entwined,
and that Romania must have felt
itself to be part of Europe!
Romania has in one time of history
elected to be in eternity!
To have no connection
with historical time,
because it's the terror of our history!
We are here
in the middle of the crossroads
of all nations, invaders and empires
and everything else!
And to survive
the Romanian people choose to be
suspended in eternity!
I'm not entlrely sure what that means.
When I set out
to see Bucharest the next mornlng,
I'm not entlrely sure where I am.
Have I been
flown back to London overnlght?
Perhaps I never left Maramures?
Ahl Now I understand. Of coursel
I'm In the Amerlcan West.
- Hello! You're Bogdan?
- Hi, Michael!
- Very good! Very good to meet you!
- Yes, welcome!
I feel I've been all over the world
in the last two minutes
trying to get here!
Bogdan Moncea
runs the many make-belleve worlds
here at Castel Fllm Studlos.
It's a Romanlan success story,
wlth Internatlonal hlts
llke Cold Mountain shot here
and another Amerlcan movle
currently In productlon.
MAN: Action!
So how did it come to be?
Post-Communism was very chaotic!
Most of the industries
trying to find pace,
trying to find directions,
markets were collapsing,
systems were collapsing and changing,
so it seems to be crazy
for a young D0P at that time
called Vlad Paunescu
to start a business like that!
You know, it seems crazy!
But, in the end, now it seems to be
a very successful business,
and it is a very successful business!
Bucharest, a sprawl
of some two mllllon people,
has been a capltal for 350 years.
But It Is the traumatlc recent hlstory,
shaped by the communlst dlctator
Nlcolae Ceausescu
who ran the place for 25 years,
that Is stamped all over lt.
M0NCEA: That building in front
of us there, the white building,
was the Central Committee
of the Communist Party!
Thls Is where the revolutlon
In 1 989 started In Bucharest.
PALIN: Oh, rlght, yeah.
B0GDAN: Thls Is where
a blg crowd of people was gathered
In December, 1 989 by Ceausescu,
strangely enough, In a blg rally
to support Communlsm, actually,
and people started to boo hlm
and to, In a way, attack hlm verbally,
and then, gradually,
llterally attack thls bulldlng.
And from the top of the bulldlng
Is a very famous shot of hls hellcopter
taklng off from the palace.
PALIN: Wlthln days, he was executed.
The Communist system in Romania
was probably, if not the toughest,
definitely one of the toughest
in Eastern Europe!
It was very similar,
and he actually had models
from those areas,
in North Korea,
in Vietnam at that time, in Iraq!
He became a very good friend
with all these dictators!
PALIN: And thls was the result,
Ceausescu's Palace of the People.
After the Pentagon,
the second largest bulldlng
In the world.
It now houses, amongst other thlngs,
the Romanlan Parllament,
and I'm shown round by another Bogdan,
MP and current
Presldent of the Chamber of Deputles,
Bogdan Moltlanu.
M0LTIANU: Frankly speaking,
everybody hated it
because of its history,
because of the people
which were brought here by force!
Some of them died!
Thousands of houses
had been demolished in this area
- And people were forcefully removed!
- Yeah!
M0LTIANU: So, basically,
Romanians hated it!
There was a long debate
in the early '90s
about what to do with it!
And one of the ideas was to bomb it!
- To bomb it?
- Yeah, to demolish it, okay!
It was the idea to bomb it from a plane!
In the end, It was easler to keep lt.
The headache for Bogdan
and hls colleagues now
Is how to flll the space.
The statlstlcs are staggerlng.
Begun In 1 984,
20,000 labourers and 700 archltects
worked 24 hours a day
to bulld over 1,000 rooms,
hang 4,500 chandellers,
lay 1,000,000 cublc feet of marble.
And It's stlll not flnlshed.
One carpet alone welghed 1 4 tons,
there's a nuclear bunker
dug 70 feet below ground,
and 26 churches
and 7,000 homes were demollshed for thls
and the clvlc centre that surrounds lt.
You can see the grand scheme here,
from this balcony!
Yeah! Here he can address the people
and they will never know
who's addressing them
because they can hardly see you
from there!
Yes, that's a bit of a mistake!
Was he sort of illuminated?
- Minor mistake!
- Minor mistake!
M0LTIANU: If he had the time probably
he would have built a second building!
PALIN: Yeah! And was that
based on the Champs Elysees?
Was that the idea?
M0LTIANU: I wouldn't say
it's based on the looks,
but it's certainly based on the size!
He wanted to have
a boulevard longer and wider
and he managed
to have it longer and wider!
It's a little bit wider
and a little bit longer!
No other comparison, I would say!
Fragments of the old clty
can stlll be seen,
but, In truth,
there's preclous llttle left
of the golden days of the 1 920s and '30s
when Bucharest
was known as Llttle Parls.
Of course, there have been golden days
for Romanla slnce then.
Many of whlch Involved thelr
world number one tennls player
of the 1 9 70s, Ille Nastase.
0h, well, I say!
I've never been
in a tennis superstar's home before,
- So show me!!!
- I'm not any more!
- Well, no!
- I've a house but I'm not superstar!
PALIN: Well, there you are!
That was the superstar days!
ILIE: There's one with the
ugly Tiriac there, also! 0h, my God!
How long have you been in this house?
- Thirty three years!
- Right!
You ever wanted to live in another city?
- Yeah, New York!
- Yeah!
And also Rome,
but I was in New York first
- And I don't have time for Rome after!
- Yeah!
I feel I know you!
- 0kay!
- Because I've seen you so often,
- And followed your!!!
- I think I saw you, too!
- 0h, really! Not playing tennis!
- No, seriously, seriously!
- Not playing tennis! No, no!
- No, no!
- So when you decided!!!
- I know your face,
but I don't know from where,
but I saw!!! Yeah!
- Way back, way back!
- Way back? Me, too!
(B0TH LAUGHING)
When you were
a tennis superstar in the '70s,
what was it like here
in Ceausescu's Communist Romania?
And yet being able to leave the country
and go to the bright lights of the West!
Did you feel a bit in two worlds?
Well, it was difficult for me
because, you know,
I was living mostly in the West,
and I play in the West all the time,
and when I have to play Davis Cup
I have to come back
and I know the situation
was not very good
because my parents told me
what's happening!
They have a good life
but the other people not!
We're looking at new Europe
and how it's changing!
How much has Romania changed
since the fall of Communism?
Unfortunately, I think,
people, they have more freedom,
but they have less money, unfortunately!
I'm talking about general people,
not the few of them who are very rich!
And they have not millions but billions,
some of them!
But, unfortunately, like I said,
now freedom is there,
but they cannot travel!
Before they have the money to travel,
they don't have the passports!
Sorry, this is slightly
a different tack,
and it may be rather personal,
but I did read a quote where
you said you'd slept with 250,000!!!
Sorry, no, 250,000 women!
- No, 2,500!
- 2,500 women!
Well, not exactly like that
but I just said that!!!
Well, I cannot tell you the story
because then the autobiography
is not going to sell any books!
No, no, no! I did with David Beckham!!!
- She's English, the lady! I did a book!
- Right!
- And, of course!!!
- That's a round figure!
He came to me and asked me
"How many girls
you think you sleep with?"
I said,
"I don't know, I never counted, but!!!"
I said, "I'm 30 years!"
I put 30 years, you know,
and I didn't put more than 30 years!
I said, "30 years!
"Maybe three a month,
four a month, five a month!
"It's, you know, almost 2,000!
"No, no," I said, "800, 900!"
And then she said,
"No, no! It cannot be like this!
"First of all, it doesn't look good
for your reputation,
"it doesn't look good for my book!
Can't sell the book!"
And then I said, "0kay!"
I said, "2,500!"
"That's sounds very good," she said!
So I said, "That's what I said!"
But it is a joke, you know!
I think I'll try and say that!
- Yeah!
- I think you can get away with it!
I probably can't!
No, but it's!!!
You know, you never count!
For me,
the one who counts is the last one!
In the vlllages and towns
of northern Romanla,
we saw the legacy of the past respected.
Ceausescu, the son of peasants,
slgnally falled
to do the same for Bucharest.
He treated the capltal as hls playthlng,
destroylng llves and hlstory
In the process.
Well, the time has come for me
to leave this rather
oddly endearing mess of a capital,
which seems to have got over
the indignities of the Ceausescu years,
and well on the way to becoming
Little Paris again
or maybe Little Milan!
It's time to head on back to the Danube,
my highway through Europe!
At the spot where a Roman brldge
once spanned thls far frontler
of thelr emplre,
I walk wlth Dan Badarau,
who was born and brought up here.
A Natlonal Theatre actor,
he's also much In demand to play baddles
In Amerlcan actlon movles.
The Ideal person, perhaps,
to escort me out of Romanla.
A masslve hydro-electrlc plant
has transformed
thls dramatlc stretch of the Danube
from a turbulent gorge
called the Iron Gates
to a wlde, wlndswept sea.
- The gorge is!!!
- There!
- There, yes!
- Where those rocks are, yes!
You'll see it! It's fantastic!
The whole thing narrows!
It's very, very tight!
The Danube here is like a big lake!
Ahead of me and Dan,
another gorge walts to be navlgated.
And now you'll see, in one minute,
a huge statue
of our ancient king, Decebal!
- Really?
- Yes!
Where is it?
Round, just round the inlet there?
Yes!
PALIN: Strange place for a statue!
I still can't see anything!
- The eyes!
- 0h, yes!
- Nose!
- 0h! Yes!
- Huge moustache!
- That's very good!
And what does it say?
PALIN: Decebalus rex
DAN: Latin!
DAN: Decebalus rex Dragan feclt.
- PALIN: Dragan made it!
- Dragan made it! Yes!
PALIN: Now, who is Dragan?
DAN: He got his fortune in Italy
and now he gave a gift
- For the Romanian people! Yes!
- Gift to the Romanian people?
King Decebalus is a hero of the country?
Yes, he's a hero
because he fight with the Romans!
- Ah, right!
- With Traian, Emperor Traian!
- Trajan, yes, Trajan!
- Traian, yes!
As we approach the gorge,
I experlence a feellng
that the Roman leglonnalres
mlght once have shared,
of leavlng a far-off outpost
as the Danube carrles me onwards.