10 Stars On IMDB

Viorel Spinu
I was the cause for his success. He was a well-established colonel. He had come home during that holiday and he didn't want to go to school anymore. He said he would stay in the village to take care of the goats. I sent him back to the officer school. I compelled him. Look here on his hand, see how it feels like a bump? I broke his bone when I beat him then, but he went back to school. He finished it with flying colours. And now he tells me thank you, mother, for helping me become an accomplished man. The colonel was silent. The colonel's wife was frowning at her husband. The rest of them were smiling in confusion.

Cristina Daniela Dumitru-Pascal
He closed the prayer book. He took off his orthodox cassock. He laid down on the bed. We don't leave our demons at the door, we confront them, the abbot told himself 50 years ago. He didn't even know he had some until yesterday. He had received a note from her. If you are reading this, I am gone. That day, you told me you wanted to become an abbot. I let you. I loved you. I wanted to tell you that your son will bring you this note today. He felt her next to him. I'm hungry, he said. She held out her breast. Just like for a baby. I'm thirsty. She kissed him. I'm afraid. She took his hand. I still love you.

George Dometi
An earthquake occurred. I hope that there won't be any aftershocks. But wait a minute, the Romanian actor is not afraid of lines[1]. He is afraid of having his lines cutback. The critics are laughing out loud in the hall. He is quiet in his chair. He looks around distressed to see if he is noticed by anyone. Even though he has chosen a profession for nosey people, he has lived in the shadows all his life, being unbothered and now, it is his time to shine. The newspapers will place him on the front pages. The herd is watching the huge screen. The end. The rounds of applause cover the beginning of the blast.(Translated by Andreea Cuprian / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In September 2023, the group has 11,820 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.