Book, film dedicated to King Michael I of Romania launched at library from Moldovan capital

Chisinau, 25 October /MOLDPRES/ - An event dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of King Michael I of Romania took place at the Chisinau-based B.P Hasdeu Municipal Library today. The event was marked by the launch of a book signed by Aliona Grati titled, Regele Mihai și Basarabia. O poveste uitată de neuitat (King Michael and Bessarabia. A forgotten unforgettable tale) and the screening of a film titled, Vizitele monarhilor la Chișinău. Partea a III-a: Ultimul Rege Mihai I (The visits to Chisinau by monarchs. Part II: The Last King Michael I). The authors of the film are PhD in philology Aliona Grati and PhD in history Nicolae Enciu.    

Contacted by MOLDPRES, Aliona Grati said the volume comprised 340 pages and had appeared at a publishing house from Bucharest.

„The book was born out of the overwhelming need to fill a void. A void which I felt acutely and, as I imagine, the people belonging to my nation. For the people born in the area between Dniester and Prut on the period when it was part of the USSR, the kings of our forerunners are almost unknown. The denationalization policies, interdictions as to the historical past, the Romanian-phobic policy, the distorted truth of the Soviet historiography, the aggressive atheism and the coercive measures destroyed methodologically the collective memory of the Bessarabian Romanians about the royal institution,’’ Aliona Grati said.      

In the book’s afterword, President of the Romanian Academy, academician Ioan- Aurel Pop says, inter alia, that ‘’the author, with the mind of the researcher and the feeling of the Romanian, urges us, in this memorable work, to know and value our history, which belongs to us everybody and within which the figure of King Michael remains unforgettable.’’    

The documentary film, The visits to Chisinau by monarchs. Part II: The Last King Michael I, is part of a serial film created by researchers of a scientific project from the Moldovan State University, with the support of the Culture Department from the capital. The subject of the film represents the visits to Chisinau by King Michael I.