Holocaust Education Week: Screening of 2 Romanian Movies

The Romanian General Consulate in Toronto in collaboration with Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and Glendon Campus invite you to mark Holocaust Education Week with two Romanian movies on the subject.

Both movies will be introduced by York Professor and film director Tereza Barta.

The event is free and both movies have English subtitles.

Gruber’s Journey
(Călătoria lui Gruber) (2008) 

Director: Radu Gabrea 

Gruber’s Journey or Călătoria lui Gruber is a 2008 Romanian drama directed by Radu Gabrea. It is set in World War II during the Holocaust in Iaşi (Iași pogrom). The film centers on an Italian writer named Curzio Malaparte, who was a member of the Italian Fascist Party. 

Malaparte is assigned to cover the Russian front for the Italian news service, and travels with Colonel Freitag of the Wehrmacht and the deputy commander of the local Romanian garrison to Romania . He suffers from a serious allergy and is sent to consult world-class allergist, Dr. Josef Gruber in Iaşi , but Gruber is missing. 

Suffering terribly from his allergy, Malaparte desperately seeks to find the doctor who has been captured. During his search for the doctor he encounters shocking situations in the Holocaust against the Jews in the city. He later writes a critical account of the incident in his novel Kaputt. 

Aliyah DaDa (2015) 

Director: Oana Giurgiu 

A documentary about the Jewish people in Romania and their several migrations towards Israel , across history and changing political frames – everything presented in a self-proclaimed dadaist style. 

The documentary sets out on a journey to uncover the reality behind the Romanian Jews aliyah (the return to the Holy Land). This incredibly rich story also touches on the adventure of the first settlers who abandoned their modern lives in Eastern Europe at end of the 19th century for a stark existence in a hostile Palestine.

Unfolding something like a fairy tale, Aliyah DaDa is not without its dark revelations, including the infamous trade of Romanian Jews to Israel during Ceaușescu’s regime, and its captivating visual style—interviews and archival footage interlinked with Dadaist installations and brisk photo collages—pays tribute to two pioneers of that movement, the Romanian Jews Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco.