The contemporary foregrounding of obsolete image-recording devices in artistic renditions of life in the Eastern bloc is a notable instance of the complex relation between ostalgie and collective traumatic memory. Starting from this consideration, our article will aim to enlarge Svetlana Boym's taxonomy of nostalgia, by adding the category of reflexive nostalgia, and then consider its link to the notion of ostalgie. An analysis of Gabriel Achim's 2011 black comedy Visul lui Adalbert (Adalbert's Dream), which revolves around the completion of an unusual industrial safety film in a Romanian factory in the 80s, will be provided as an example of the manner in which this dynamic unfolds.
Liri Chapelan is a PhD Candidate at the National Film and Theatre Art School I.L. Caragiale of Bucharest, Romania, where she previously received a BA in Film Directing and an MA in Film Studies.
Citation: Liri Chapelan, "VCR, VHS, and RCP: Reflexive (N)ostalgia in Gabriel Achim’s Visul lui Adalbert," Artifact & Apparatus: Journal of Media Archaeology 1 (Fall 2021): 81–96.