Konrad Petrovszky / Milo Rau

Konrad Petrovszky What does „truth“ mean in case of the reenactment of the Ceauşescu process?

Milo Rau I think that a revolution can’t be adequately narrated. The documentaries I know always get tangled with some conspiracy theory because when you try to create a linear presentation of facts, you allow for paranoid interpretations. I realized that the inconsistencies have to be shown as what they are – conflicting truths. My inquiry can be explained with the help of a simple semiotic model of interpretation; neither the material nor the referential level interest me in this case but rather the third level, that of the evocative power. Meaning that certain factor that tells us „this is an iconic image,“ „this is an allegory,“ „this is a revolution.“ It speaks to us, calls us to something. The truth that I strive at consists only of the density of appeals and evocations created at the moment I saw these images as a child. I decided against a documentary or a feature film, and for dramatizing the momentousness of the images instead. On a practical level this meant meticulous, almost religious, attention to details. This is precisely where my...