Slashings and subtitles. Romanian media piracy, censorship, and translation

Friday nights in Romania under the communist regime (which came to an end in December 1989), friends and family would gather in front of their television sets trying to guess what they were actually watching. Telephone calls would be made, film reference and theory books consulted. Such detective skills were required due to the government’s censorship tactics which included screening foreign films (both on television and in cinemas) with their titles altered beyond recognition, credit sequences removed, entire scenes eliminated and dialogue ideologically “cleansed” through the subtitling process. Coauthor and Romanian national Ioana Uricaru recalls that “God” was invariably translated as “Cel-de-Sus” or “the one above” and “church” as “edificiu” or “edifice.” Sometimes films playing in cinemas would differ dramatically at the beginning and end of their run, as elements requiring excision came to the attention of officials.