Well-known Moldovan cinema operator, master photographer marks 80th birthday anniversary

Chisinau, 17 July /MOLDPRES/ - A well-known cinema operator, movie director, master photographer, laureate of the State Prize Pavel Balan marks his 80th birthday anniversary today.

Pavel Balan was born in the Hancesti village, Falesti district, in 1938. In 1965, Balan graduated from the Image Operators Faculty of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography from Moscow (VGIK), class of professor Boris Volchek. Starting from 1964, he worked at the Moldova-film studio, first as operator of documentaries.    

Just from the beginning of his career, in the first three years of work, along with film director Vlad Iovita, Balan made valuable documentaries of the national cinematography, such as „Piatră, piatră...”(Stone-stone), „Fântâna”(The Well), „De-ale toamnei” (Of Autumn) – 1966. Pavel Balan received the prize „Micul chihlimbar” (The Small Amber) at a regional festival of five union republics (Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova) in 1966. In 1967, along with script writer Vlad Iovita and movie director Gheorghe Voda, Balan participated as chief operator in shooting the full-length film „Se caută un paznic” (A Guard is Sought) – the first film made in the Romanian language, for which he got the diploma, The Best Operator, at the Regional Festival from Riga.     

Pavel Balan also participated in making more fiction films. He cooperated with film directors, Vasile Pascaru, Nicolae Ghibu, Valeriu Jereghi, Tudor Tataru and others.

In 1980s, Balan debuted as film director and script writer, shooting more documentaries, in which he evoked the people’s customs and traditions, the history of the nation and important personalities of Moldova (Varlaam, Anastasia Crimca, Petru Movila, Vasile Lupu, etc.)

Boris Balan is author of the volumes „Poliptic Moldav” (Moldovan Polyptych) (published in 1985), „Icoana sufletului nostru” (The Icon of Our Soul), „Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt” (Stephen the Great and Holy), „Tradiții populare în arhitectura moldovenească” (Popular Traditions in Moldovan Architecture), „Biserica Adormirea Maicii Domnului de la Căușeni” (The Assumption of the Virgin Church from Causeni), „Cetățile sufletului. Mănăstiri și schituri basarabene” (The Fortress of the Soul, Bessarabian Monasteries and Sketes) and ”Rugă pentru neam” (Prayer for Nation) – an album about Moldova’s art from the 14th-20th centuries.  

Pavel Balan was awarded the Boris Glavan prize in 1983 and in 1988 – the State Prize of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic.  

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor M. Jantovan)