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A new documentary film scheduled to premiere April 7 at the Uptown Marble Theater will feature the fascinating story of Kingsland residents Julian and Elena Chitta, who grew up in Romania and experienced the horrors of communism first-hand for more than twenty years before escaping to Austria in 1969.

The film, entitled The Dream Killers, tells the story of how communists took over a prosperous European country (Romania’s capital, Bucharest was known as the “Paris of the East” for its elaborate architecture and its status as a cosmopolitan center of culture) and reduced it to starvation.

Julian Chitta’s father was a newspaper publisher; he was arrested on trumped-up charges and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment (leaving his wife with four young children to care for) just two years after the communist takeover in 1946; Julian was forced to work in a labor camp as a “child of an enemy of the people.” Elena’s father was an accountant, who was arrested in 1958 and also sentenced to ten years for “attempting to disrupt the people’s dictatorship.” All his assets were seized, and the family was left with nothing. Both men were tortured during their imprisonment; Elena’s mother died two months before her husband’s term was completed; she suffered a heart attack at the hospital, but was left in a stretcher with no medical attention for two days before she died at age 47.

Humor was the “only satisfaction” of the oppressed people, but it was a risky pastime. Julian tells how Romanians joked about a “contest for the best political joke,” where the “first prize” was ten years in prison! He also recalls mischievous high school students who would line up in front of a store at night, and tell passers-by that there would be fresh fish for sale there the next day. As the “news” spread, and thousands of people joined the line, the high school students would slip away, leaving storekeepers to face an angry mob the next day – with no fresh fish.

When the Chittas managed to escape while “on vacation” in Hungary, the regime punished their families; no one on either side was able to get any kind of promotion, and Julian’s brother (an accomplished cello player who traveled with an orchestra) was no longer allowed to leave the country.

The documentary was directed by Mark Sommer, of Adastra Video Productions, and is being produced by Craig Cosgray, of Marengo Films. A $10 donation is requested, but each guest will receive a DVD of the film. Showtime is 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7.