It was, I think, the Russians who at some point ordered a movie series called ?The Communists?. Each socialist country had to contribute. The series was directed by Ozerov, quite a name in cinema. Obviously, the Romanian series was about Ceausescu?s ?revolutionary? youth. The role was played by an actor from the children?s theater, Constantin Fugasin. Among other things, they shot the Russians? entrance into Bucharest, in 1944. There was a cheering crowd, and we were welcoming them. That is, Ceausescu was welcoming them and we followed suit. The text was: ?Welcome and good luck!? That?s what Ceausescu had to say. Rehearsals started, 7 cameras were moving around, as for crowd scenes. The Russian troops were coming in and we were advancing towards them? and Fugasin said in front of the shooting camera: ?Welcome? and good riddance!? Everyone started laughing, and Ozerov couldn?t understand why. They probably told him afterwards. (P. P., 143)

Rock and hard-rock were forbidden during Ceausescu's regime. Their message was thought to differ from the lifestyle imposed by the regime. However, the concerts of the Romanian rock bands (Iris, Holograf, Compact), the performance halls, such as Polivalenta, were full of young people mainly. Because of censorship, they were not allowed to wear typical clothes of the style they promoted. Angela Similea, Corina Chiriac, Mirabela Dauer were in fashion!

I remember that in an interview taken after the '89 Revolution, Vali Sterian stated that during the shoot for TVR 1, he and his band called "The Sound Company" were forced to use pins to hold their hair and to be dressed in tie and suit.

Tapes with different bands (AC/DC, Iron Maiden) were listened to or watched by students in hostels. They were brought by foreign students and sold illegally in campuses. (V. C., 25)

I listened to Voice of America on a medium waves radio. I used to listen to "Tor Rock", a half-an-hour broadcast on Thursdays evening at 9.30 p.m. As a rock fan, this was the only way to listen to something good, to quite new tunes on the radio. "Melorhythm" was a one-hour program broadcast every two weeks, at 9 p.m. on Friday on Romania 3 channel. Half of the tunes were Romanian, half foreign. The foreign ones were generally soft rock, French or Spanish rock. Scorpions or AC/DC would be played, but Slayer, Obituary, trash or speed were out of the question.

I used to buy foreign records from the flea market. For instance, Queen, for 200 lei. I bought other records for 300 lei like Genesis and all the like. This was the place where you could buy audio-tapes. (A. V., 97)