Oglinda also known as Începutul adevărului ("The Beginning of Truth"), is a controversial 1993 film by Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n director Sergiu Nicolaescu

Sergiu Nicolaescu

Sergiu Florin Nicolaescu is a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He is best known for his historical films, such as Mihai Viteazul , Dacii , Razboiul Independenţei , as well as for his series of...

. It depicts Romania during World War II

Romania during World War II

Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...

, focusing on the Royal Coup

King Michael's Coup

King Michael's Coup refers to the coup d'etat led by King Michael of Romania in 1944 against the pro-Nazi Romanian faction of Ion Antonescu, after the Axis front in Northeastern Romania collapsed under the Soviet offensive.-The coup:...

 that toppled Ion Antonescu

Ion Antonescu

Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...

, the Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

-allied Conducător

Conducator

Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...

and authoritarian

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

 Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Romania

The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...

.

Reactions

The film was criticized as being apologetic of Antonescu, whom it portrays as a martyr figure, without mention being made of his complicity in the Holocaust (see Holocaust in Romania). Oglinda is also sympathetic to Antonescu's Nazi German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 ally Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

, who is depicted as a calm and wise politician. Nicolaescu himself claims that journalist Octavian Paler

Octavian Paler

Octavian Paler was a Romanian writer, journalist, politician in Communist Romania, and civil society activist in post-1989 Romania.-Biography:Octavian Paler was born in Lisa, Braşov Country.He was educated at Spiru Haret High School in Bucharest...

 labeled it a "fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 film".

The film was also criticized for several other errors. Historian and former public servant Neagu Djuvara

Neagu Djuvara

Neagu Djuvara is a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.-Early life:A native of Bucharest, he descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family...

, who in 1944 represented Antonescu's government to Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, where he contacted the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 representative Alexandra Kollontai

Alexandra Kollontai

Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai was a Russian Communist revolutionary, first as a member of the Mensheviks, then from 1914 on as a Bolshevik. In 1919 she became the first female government minister in Europe...

 and unsuccessfully negotiated an armistice

Armistice

An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...

, rejected the film's allusive take on these events, which claimed that Romania's special requests had been ignored by their counterparts, and called it "a lie". According to Sergiu Nicolaescu, former Romanian King Michael I

Michael I of Romania

Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...

, the main decision factor behind Antonescu's deposition, objected to his character being depicted as a heavy smoker. Speaking in 2008, Djuvara criticized Oglinda in its entirety for mystification, while expressing similar reserves in respect to Nicolaescu's 2008 project, a biographical film on Michael's ancestor Carol I

Carol I of Romania

Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...

 (Carol I - Un destin).

Nicolaescu's 1993 production received negative assessments from several film critics. As part of his commentary on Nicolaescu's entire filmography, beginning with films he produced under the communist regime

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

, Valerian Sava depicted Nicolaescu as an untalented director caught in a "megalomaniac trance", and deemed Oglinda "a rudimentary historical reenactment". A similar overview was provided by Angelo Mitchievici, who described "the honor of a dueler", a cliché which he believed was characteristic of Oglinda as well as its predecessors Mihai Viteazul

Mihai Viteazul (film)

Michael the Brave is a Romanian historic film, created by the film director Sergiu Nicolaescu. The film is a representation of the life of the Wallachian ruler Mihai Viteazu, and his will to unite the three Romanian principalities in one country...

and Nemuritorii

Nemuritorii

Nemuritorii is a 1974 Romanian historical-adventure drama film. This film was directed by Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu...

.

Nicolaescu defended his film, claiming that its critics were "afraid to look in the face of history." He referred to Oglinda as "real history, without any form of restriction", and "the first and only Romanian political film

Political cinema

Political cinema in the narrow sense of the term is a cinema which portrays current or historical events or social conditions in a partisan way in order to inform or to agitate the spectator...

." He also maintained that Corneliu Coposu

Corneliu Coposu

-Early life:Coposu was born in Bobota, Sălaj County to the Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Valentin Coposu and his wife Aurelia Coposu...

, a first-hand witness to the events, applauded the film upon its premiere.