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I was born in 1967 Romania, an
only son of former political dissidents of the
Stalinist era. My mother and her parents spent
many years in a Communist labor camp after their
land and farmhouse was nationalized under the
Russian occupation in 1947. My father took part
in an anti-Communist movement during the same
period. His youthful naiveté landed him in
prison for "anti-revolutionary activities" for
seven years, 1952 – 1959. I still remember my
grandparents telling me how they thought that
Mr. Truman and the "Anglo-Americans" would not
"leave us behind". By the time of Mr.
Eisenhower, they gave up hope... History and
politics were present at the dinner table with
us trough out my childhood. Radio "Free Europe"
was the family bible, and my fascination with
the world outside the "workers paradise" started
early. |
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My teenage years, the eighties,
were some of the most depressing times in the
history of my country. The insane policies of
Nicolae Ceausescu lead the country to ruin. Food, heating and
electricity shortages made for a very
frustrated populous, and that resulted in a very
tightly run police state. The government network
of informers, random checks, permits and
approvals for the most basic activities killed
all hope in the future, so, at the age of twenty
I decided to leave Romania. |
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Recruited for the 18 months mandatory military
service at eighteen,
I ended up as a battery specialist for a tank battalion. The military
life was actually good for me. I needed to learn
the discipline and focus. In the meantime, my father Paul died of
leukemia. I was nineteen at the time. |
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After two failed attempts to
cross the border illegally, that landed me in
jail for a few months, I finally made it to
Austria in the summer of 1989. I was granted
political asylum, but I didn’t enjoy Austria
that much. My childhood
dream was America, and luckily enough, a year later I also got
political asylum from the US Embassy in Vienna. |
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I started my new life in
California, living with family friends. I had an
AA degree in electrical engineering, it was my
only skill, and I put it to work repairing Xerox
machines.
In 1996 I started my own business, Laptops For
Less, Inc. Running a business was a great
experience, and I enjoyed some success. The idea
of "Laptops for Less" was to
market laptop accessories in competition with the
various computer manufacturers.
In order to acquire those accessories, I formed
relationships with Asian manufacturers from
Taiwan, Honk Kong, China, Japan and Korea. The
business flourished, employed 16 great people,
but after eight years it started to live me
somewhat empty inside. I just didn't feel that
the business life was meant for me anymore. |
By the 2004 I sold my business,
and decided to pursue my childhood dream of
investigative journalism. After taking a number
of film
production classes I decided to start the making
of "The World without US". During 2005
and 2006 we started the production. My film making
partner Jason Tomaric and I, traveled to
over twenty countries and interviewed over 40
people from all walks of life. By August 2007
the film was finished and is now in the
distribution process.
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