Educational programs that use theater as a therapeutic or rehabilitation methodology are part of the arsenal of many prison systems in the world. The American Cornell University has a 'prison theatre' course and the 'Shakespeare Behind Bars' program has been running in British prisons for many years. Some very interesting films have also dealt with this theme. The Taviani brothers' 2012 'Cesare deve morire' was even filmed in Italy's Rebibbia prison, starring inmates convicted of serious crimes. More recently, in 2020, French director Emmanuel Courcol brought to the screens in 'Un triomphe' the story of an actor whose glory days are almost over and who gives acting lessons to inmates in a prison, trying to create a show based on ' En attendant Godot'. A similar theme is the basis of the script written by Gabriel Gheorghe for 'Visul' ('The Dream'), the most recent film by Cãtãlin Saizescu.
Alex, the main hero of the film, is an actor who doesn't really have anything going well neither in his profession nor in life. He is employed at a theater, but he does not act, being cast as a double and as the director prefers the title holder of the role, a movie star, he does not even have the opportunity to rehearse. He lives with an actress, a fellow graduate student, but their relationship is strained and in danger of falling apart when she finds success by being cast in a leading role in a movie. It is not clear why exactly (boredom? Professional obligation? The need to do something?) he volunteers to do theater with a group of inmates at a penitentiary. As they are all men, he decides to stage the play within a play in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', also designed to be played by men (who in the ancient theater, but also in Shakespeare's time, also undertook the female roles) . Theater and Penitentiary, acting and relationships beyond bars collide and the consequences will be unforeseen. The prisoners agree to participate in the project more in order to have the opportunity to meet a world other than the one in the prison space. Some of them dream of an opportunity to escape. How did the magic of the theater work on them? What will be the influence of this collaboration on Alex's life?
The script doesn't avoid a few common or predictable places. The scenes in the film take place in three different environments. Several of them take place in the apartment rented by the two actors, a typical space of bohemian disorder. Others take place in the penitentiary. I've only seen prisons in movies. I have no experience with what prisons in Romania or elsewhere look like in reality. Cãtãlin Saizescu tried to render the feeling of claustrophobia by accompanying the hero on his first visit to the institution with his camera. Heavy doors that close with heavy metallic noises. Corridors that seem to never end. Repeated checks by metal detectors. After the heroes pass these perimeter demarcations, the rooms look pretty much like any culture club room anywhere. I don't know how true the description is. The third space is the one that is rendered with authenticity. It feels that the director and the actors know well theater - stage, dressing rooms, backstage - and feel in their element here. So are the dialogues. If the quarrels between the lovers suffer a little from verbosity, and the lines in the prison look too insistently for the comic, here the dialogues are cursive and the characters - the admin director, the stage director, the local politician - are well penciled. The lead role is played with passion and sensitivity by Vlad Logigan. The gallery of inmates manages, as the story advances, to diversify and each of the characters takes shape and personality, with a special mention for Serghei Niculescu-Mizil. Georgiana Saizescu, Gloria Gaitan and Magda Catone have well-written feminine roles. George Ivascu plays the juicy role of a stage director, and Florin Piersic Jr. That of a film director. Theatre critic Irina Margareta-Nistor appears as ... Irina Margareta-Nistor. I won't reveal the surprise ending, I'll just say that all the characters, on both sides of the bars, come out of this story changed. The purpose of theater to change something in the lives of those who participate in the making of the artistic act or who consume it as spectators is fulfilled - at least in this film.
