Mircea

Sergiu Nicolaescu is one of best film directors in Romania. "Mircea" is devoted to the history of Medieval Romania (Wallachia). Old Mircea, prince of Wallachia, is trying to stop Turkish invasion into Europe, there are political intrigues inside his own family, he should fight against his brother... The film is long and epic, sometimes it could seem naive and too long, and truly "Mircea" is not the best film by Sergiu Nicolaescu. It's not as dynamic and impressive as his other films. But Nicolaescu made here very original step which could be interesting for the foreign viewers.

All events here are shown from the point of view of a kid - Vlad Tepes (Tsepesh) i.o. Dracula himself, who was the grandson of Mircea. Mircea, Vlad, Romania (Wallachia) are shown here as a parts and participants of Euro-Asian policy and culture. Sultan Bayazid, Timur the Great are appearing in this film. And it's very original if you see the Dracula not as fantasy monster of Hollywood movies but as future freedom fighter. That's why this film is worth viewing for the lovers of historical cinema.

I could suppose that Coppola saw this film and it influenced his vision of Dracula. As example battle sequence in the very start of "Mircea", view of Turkish camp in the night behind the river could remind you of the first minutes from "Bram Stocker's Dracula" by F.F. Coppola. Film was banned by Romanian dictator Nicolae Caushescu in the last year of his reign.