in their home country. This allowed Moldovan cinema to develop a distinct identity. During Khruschev's thaw, which ushered increased liberties in artistic expression, Moldovan filmmakers such as Emil Loteanu and Valeriu Gagiu produced films which comprised the “Moldovan Poetic Film,” a genre which fused realism with romance and enjoyed wide appeal in the USSR. However, as in the rest of the Soviet republics, the state exercised a considerable influence in the content of these films, and with the rise of Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary came a resurgence of official censorship. Socialist Realism, once de rigueur under Stalin’s leadership, became, again, the artistic model for film professions; and critiques of Soviet history were vehemently disfavored by party leaders. For instance, Valeriu Gagiu’s A Taste of Bread (1966), about Moldovan resistance during Stalin’s tight-fisted agricultural collectivization policies after the Second World War, elicited outrage from party leaders, despite the film’s enthusiastic reception at film festivals. Hence, in keeping with the state’s systematic suppression of Moldovan cinema and culture, the Central Committee of the Moldovan Communist Party banned the film in 1970. Other Moldovan films suffered similar fates. 1970-1990 During the post-Thaw era of the 1970s, characterized by stagnation, studios continued to curtail artistic freedoms, though there were a few artistic successes at this time, such as Emil Loteanu’s Lăutarii (1972) and Gypsies Are Found near Heaven (1976). But by the 1980s, perestroika and glasnost occasioned a resurgence of artistic freedom and impressive Moldovan films, like Valeriu Jereghi’s Iona (1987), Gheorghe Urschi’s Whoever Swears, He Pays (1989), and Victor Bucătaru’s Crucifix (1990). Filmography In 1957, the first fiction comedy film was called Cînd omul nu-i la locul lui (When the man is not himself) after a script written by Ion Druta. In 1968, the first cartoon film, The Goat with Three Kids, was released, a film inspired by Ion Creanga's fairy-tale with the same title. In 1972, the satirical series Usturici appeared. Between 1952 and 1982, 120 fiction movies, 800 documentaries, 750 editions of the cinema magazine Soviet Moldova, 40 editions of Usturici and 40 cartoons were filmed at the Moldova-Film studio. It also dubbed 12 fiction movies and 70 short stories annually by the end of the 1980s. A cinema was built in the beginning of the 1950s in the center of Chişinău, which is now part of the Moldovan "Patria" chain. International recognition The first internationally acclaimed success was the