[4][5] Gabrea attended the city's Spiru Haret High School [ro],[6] and then enrolled in the Technical University of Civil Engineering, graduating in 1960.

For a year, Gabrea fought unsuccessfully with the communist censorship for the release of the movie; nevertheless, he obtained a passport to go to Cannes to accompany his film, which had been selected in the "Quinzaine des Réalisateurs".

In 1983, he obtained a PhD in Social Communications from Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, with thesis Werner Herzog et la mystique rhénane,[4] which was published by L'Âge d'Homme in 1986.

[8] After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Gabrea returned to his native country, where he contributed to the relaunch of cinematography, through his significant activity as a director, screenwriter, producer, and organizer of cinematographic events.

[9] On February 24, 2011, he was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his special contributions to German–Romanian cultural relations and the understanding of German–Romanian history.