Turning towards the past, Catalin Dorian Florescu captures individual worlds, extraordinary and miraculous ones. Der blinde Masseur is the story of a blind man, who massages his patients while they read to whim out loud or record literary master pieces in exchange for their treatment. In the village, at the edge of the world, the centripetal force of one character turns ordinary existance into a philosophy of life: reading creates an escape for those with no escape. Amongst the people of the village, Moneasa, Teodor, a Romanian who has left his country at 19 for Switzerland, escaping the communist regime with his parents, returns to seek his first love and remember what the past can stand for. A friendship between Ion, the blind masseur, his 4 trained philosophers and Teodor develops. All for an unexpected ending to the story: the departure of some and the final arrival of Teodor, as not all who seek are necessarly lost. The blind masseur existed in real life, an inspiration for Florescus story. For the Swiss author there is nothing but vita activa in our surroundings. And that is life’s spectacle.
– by BIZULEANU DANA
