By the time Slavomir Popovici filmed this documentary, his protagonist was already famous for the museum of history and folk art he had established in his house in Arbore village. His museum was visited by thousands of tourists each year, while the journals that he had kept for four decades had been published in 1972 as The Chronicle from Arbore. Hrib was a peasant autodidact from Bucovina, North Romania. Although he was an eccentric, he was also the perfect film protagonist for 1970s Romanian documentary.