Arts Library from Chisinau hosts party to honour famous Moldovan cinema man, master photographer

Chisinau, 23 July /MOLDPRES/ - A homage party titled, A Life between Films and Books. Pavel Balan marking the 80th Birthday Anniversary, took place at the Tudor Arghezi Arts Library today.  

Attending the event were cinema men, writers, journalists, librarians and readers. Three documentary films by Pavel Balan were screened at the event: ”Fântâna” (The Well), ”Piatră, piatră...” (Stone, Stone…) and Petru Movila.   

Contacted by MOLDPRES, a PhD in arts, Dumitru Olarescu, said that Pavel Balan was an archaeologist of Moldova’s spirituality. “Through his books and films, he made himself conspicuous as an archaeologist. He dug in rocks of the past, extracted deposits which cannot be compared either with gold or precious stone. He is one of the creators of the golden period of the Moldovan cinematography. He laid the foundations of the poetic film, recognized worldwide. He made 30 documentaries and 12 fiction films. He was also director for some of his documentaries. Balan edited extraordinary books about the national culture and art. His last book ”Rugă pentru neam” (Prayer for Nation) is a monumental unprecedented work in the national culture,” Olarescu said.   

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.    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. He was also awarded the Order of the Republic, Merited Arts Master, Gloria Muncii (Labour Glory) order, Mihai Eminescu and Dimitrie Cantemir medals, and others.     

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor M. Jantovan)