There are hundreds of films vying for funds on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and most of them are, to be blunt, not particularly interesting. Of course, there are exceptions, and one that caught our eye recently was Chuck Norris vs Communism. As the blurb on their Kickstarter page puts it:
“Chuck Norris vs Communism tells the story of the transformation of a nation through a seemingly small act of resistance. In the 1980s, Ceausescu, the dictator who had ruled Romania with an iron fist since 1965, became obsessed with repaying Western loans and building a palace of unprecedented proportions. At the same time, hidden from the scrutinising eyes of the Secret Police, Irina Nistor dubbed over 5,000 foreign blockbusters that entered Romania illegally. A sprawling horde of American films was unleashed into Romanian homes featuring everything from Megaforce and Bloodsport to Taxi Driver, from Ninja Death Squad and Fist of Fury to Brazil, from low-budget slasher films to Hollywood blockbusters. They allowed millions of Romanians to have contact with the West and escape their grim everyday life.
They turned Irina’s voice into a symbol of freedom, Chuck Norris, Van Damme and Bruce Lee into national heroes and allowed a whole country to subvert a brutal regime.”
So intrigued were we by the whole prospect that earlier this week we sat down with the director, Ilinca Calugareanu and producer Dara Carroll, to discuss film, what drove them to make it and the level of interest the project has generated within certain corners of Hollywood.
We’ll be running the interview when the film is a little closer to release, but in the meantime get yourself to the Kickstarter page and give them some money.
