White Gate (Poarta Albă)

In 2007, a young theology student discovers that,

in the fresco in the apse of St. Eleftherios Church in Bucharest,

Child Jesus held by the Madonna is wearing a labor camp coat.

The news would have passed unnoticed if the fresco hadn't been found

to have been painted 50 years before by Father Arsenie Boca,

who even then was considered the Saint of Transylvania.

He had just been released from the Danube-Black Sea Canal

Ouch! Something stung me!

I'll rub on some ointment when we get there.

I can't take it any more, I feel like I'm going to burst.

Think of something beautiful.

Nothing beautiful comes to mind.

Well, think of the Garnier Opera in Paris.

I, alone in the stalls.

You come on stage.

You're beautiful,

in a festive robe, and start the Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore aria from Tosca.

After washing dishes in restaurants for a few years, that is.

Oh my, I forgot something!

Well, you didn't forget this teddy bear!

What, your toothbrush? No, something important!

Your pajama?

Ouch! It stung me again!

What did you say you lost?

I can't take the mosquitoes any more, why didn't we cross the border on dry land?

Because we'd have been like Mache...

What happened to Mache?

He stepped on a sleeping border guard!

Enough, you two!

Once evening falls we're as good as through.

I'm scared.

You're cold, that's why you're trembling.

No, I think we're doing something foolish.

Please, Anuca!

Now say a prayer in your head.

Angel, my little angel, given to me by God.

Adrian, what do we do now? What can we do?

Let's go back.

We split up!

Ninel, don't leave me!

Freeze! Don't try to flee if you want to stay alive!

That was a warning shot. Give yourselves up!

Don't make us shoot you!

Stay where you are!

Don't try to flee or the Danube will swallow you!

You have families, think about who's waiting for you at home!

You have mothers who'd want to see you again!

We don't want to shoot you!

Stop diving or you'll get ripped by the propeller!

You don't stand a chance!

Anuca! Anuca!

Stay where you are!

Don't move or I'll put a hole in you!

Come closer!

Give me your hand!

What do you have in the bag, weapons?

No weapons. You can check.

Hold him, man, hold him!

Anuca! Anuca!

Your comrade is alive!

I got a gun aiming at you!

Stay where you are!

WHITE GATE

This film is based on real events.

Get off! Move! Come down!

Faster, get a move on!

Come on, get out, what are you dragging your feet for? Move!

Come on, old man! Come on, get out already!

Faster!

Move,man! What are you, lame?!

Line up!

Move! Move! Faster!

Five, fifteen... Number three, number four...

White Gate Penitentiary september 1949

Hold it, don't move!

Twenty five, thirty, thirty five...

Wake up, you bandits, wake up!

Come on, move, move!

ANA PAUKER AND DEJ HAVE STRUCK FEAR IN THE HEART OF THE BOURGEOIS

Come on! Line up!

Closer! Closer!

Stand at attention!

Have you preached against the communists?

In here I am your God!

In here you do what I want, not what God wants!

Are we building the Canal?

We're building the Canal!

Louder!

We're building the Canal!

You have the honor of building the Danube-Black Sea Canal!

Are we building the Canal?

We're building the Canal!

I'm asking everyone! Are we building the Canal?

We're building the Canal!

Face left!

Singing, forward march!

At the Canal we're wiping clean the stain of misdeeds past

we're opening roads with our shovels with renewed drive.

And soon the waves shall carry word

that we've given our dear country a new life and a Canal!

Keep the ranks close!

Come on, move! Faster!

Why are you just standing there?

Come on, professor, move!

You call this a loaded wheelbarrow?

Where the fuck you think you are?

Hey, hold it! It's his first day here!

Hold on, I'll work in his place,

I'm begging you!

Damn lazy asses!

What are you doing, you dummy, grab the shovel!

Are you OK? Pick him up.

It's not too bad, it'll pass in a few days.

Keep away from the brigadiers.

They're common criminals with heavy sentences.

Stanica is in for murder.

I'm a doctor. Victor.

Adrian.

Can you walk? Yes.

Smell of clay, scorch and tumbleweeds.

Faster! Push it!

Get a move on, don't make me come down there!

You don't like work, you lazy bums!

Come on, man! Go!

Adrian, I have a message from the honorable lawyers.

They say that you have to make a sling out of braided ropes,

you tie the ends to the wheelbarrow handles and hitch the sling over your head.

Come on, man! Go!

What are you doing, you dummy, grab the shovel!

Come on, move!

The hon. lawyers say that you have to fasten a girdle tight around your waist unless you want a hernia.

Go and tell the hon. lawyers that a hernia wouldn't be too bad.

The bosses are going to have to sign me into the hospital.

Come on, move!

I got another one.

The hon. lawyers say that signing is done straight into the grave.

Why are you here?

I c..cussed a I..lady...

What did you call her?

A wh... whore.

That's what you called Mrs. Ana Pauker?

Are you students?

Yes, polytechnics.

The army of angels in heavens is not yet complete.

I'm a thrall and you're my trawler.

What's with you, Petre?

Look at our country, buddy, our country...

What, are you grossed out by snakes?

They go bad in the heat. They're more tender that way.

Want a taste? It's better than roast chicken.

That's it, Truica. That's it.

Stop or I'll shoot!

Hey, don't shoot! Don't shoot!

Where did you go?

Don't shoot, he's got a baby at home!

Stop! Or I'll shoot!

Hold it, don't run!

Don't shoot!

Heeey, don't shoot!

You stop when I tell you to!

Don't shoot, he's crazy!

He doesn't know what he's doing! He went off his rocker!

Stop, you bandit, I'll shoot!

Boo! Boo! Boo! Murderers!

Why did you shoot, you murderer?

Vasile! Can't you hear me? Careful!

Why did you kill him?

Down on the ground!

Anybody moves and he shoots! Everybody down!

Did you see how he nailed him?

First shot.

Did you know he gets two weeks leave for this?

Adrian, I don't think I can take it any more. I can't.

Goddammit!

Hey, light the lamp, the fuckin' lamp!

Boss sir, the bulb is smashed.

Could you give us a match?

What did you say?

Matches? Ain't no more matches!

There's a crisis, we done run outta matches.

Just don't any of you get a bug up your ass and do what that guy's done!

Goddammit!

We're building the Canal! We're building the Canal!

Come on, move it! Move it, old man, no dawdling!

Vasile, Transylvania builds the Canal!

My name is Campus. Thanks.

They didn't smash.

Thank you.

I am a jeweler. Goldsmith.

If you don't mind, what's the time?

They call 'em owls.

They work, eat and don't say a word.

I heard he did five years in Siberia, and now it's our guys that got him.

Give me that piece of wood, please.

It's rosehip.

You want a souvenir from the Canal?

I'll make a cross pendant out of it.

What are you looking at me like that for?

You laughed like her. You laughed like your sister! Like Anuca!

I hope at least she got away...