Transylvania who?

If you’ve took the time and checked my profile or read through some of the posts in this blog you might have come across a place called Transylvania. And because it happened before, I want to make it clear to everyone: Transylvania really exists. I’ve been told, by people from the UK, that they thought this was a mythological place, situated right next door to Mordor and with Cinderella acting as a maid during daytime and as a princess in the night.

It is for sure a real place for me, as it is for the other 6-7 million people living here. It has a strong Hungarian minority of which I am a part too, but Transylvania is part of Romania nowadays. It is just not well known. But I’m sure Anocha Suwichakornpong of Thailand heard about it when she won the TIFF (Transilvania International Film Festival) in 2010. Anthony Minghella knew about it when he placed the shooting of his 2003 movie, Cold Mountain here. The majority of the shooting took place some 15 miles from where I used to live. Iron Maiden surelly heard something about it when they wrote the song “Transylvania” in 1980 and they haven’t forgot it, because now, after 20 years, they visited Transylvania and played there. And of course there is Bram Stoker. I left him at the end with a reason. He is the one, who put Transylvania on the map in the eyes of the western culture, but he is also the one, who put it right next to Mordor. Admit it: if you’ve heard about this place you’ve heard it in the context that it is Dracula’s birthplace. And just for the record: I haven’t saw a vampire in my 30 years that I spent there. Before all you believers freak out, I must admit I never saw a brown bear in the wild either and the existence of these bears back home is a fact. So...there is still hope for gothic boys and girls, although you might try at Loch Ness too, just to make sure.

Trans from Diabolus Dei on Vimeo.