Victor Rebengiuc, age 82, described as the leading actor of his county, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award next week in Beverly Hills at the SEEfest film festival, a 7-day exhibition of movies from SouthEastern Europe.
Born in Bucharest, Victor Rebengiuc has received numerous international awards and given many memorable performances during a 60-year professional stage and screen career, the festival's publicity explains.
In 1989, he took part in the Romanian Revolution, when he was among those who stormed into the Romanian Television building and broadcast the downfall of Nicolae Ceauşescu and an end to communist rule.
"In an iconic moment, he held up a roll of toilet paper to the camera, urging viewers and members of the television staff who had promoted Ceausescu's personality cult to clean up after themselves." -- quoted from Wikipedia
He famously said, during a 2005 interview: "I have but one certainty: communist society is bad. After the unfortunate experience of several tens of years, I would shove my hand into the furnace over this issue."
His breakout role came in the 1965 film called "The Forest of the Hanged" whose director was honored at the Cannes Film Festival. More recent notable films have included "Too Late" (1996), "Last Stop Paradise" (1998), "Medal of Honor" (2011), and "Half Shaved" (2014).
In 2007, entitled to receive a pension if he would retire, he declined it, saying: "I am valid... I still can act... When I can no longer act, I will place myself at a street corner, perchance someone will recognize me and hand me a pretzel or something."
In a 2013 film called "The Japanese Dog," Renengiuc plays an elderly Romanian peasant farmer who has lost his wife in a flood, but has not told his estranged son about her death. When the son finds out, he rushes home from Asia to visit his father, bringing with him his Japanese wife, their 7-year-old son, and a robotic talking dog. How to rebuild this grandfather's devastated life is the "surprisingly upbeat" trajectory of the subsequent drama, a reviewer wrote.
The Japanese Dog (2014) - Official Trailer - (1-1/2 minutes)
SEEfest will screen "The Japanese Dog" on April 30 -- its opening night.
ALLAN CRUSE
28 APR 2015