New Romanian Cinema in Context

This talk sketches an introduction to “New Romanian Cinema,” which has been an international film festival sensation for more than a decade. Identifying the most important filmmakers associated with this “new wave” and trying to delineate what their films have in common, it highlights key figures like director Cristi Puiu (originator of the realist aesthetic identified with New Romanian Cinema), screenwriter Răzvan Rădulescu (who energetically disseminated this aesthetic through his collaborations with other Romanian filmmakers) and Cristian Mungiu (who popularized it). The presentation ponders the historical and socio-cultural environment and the ideological climate from which this cinema emerged. New Romanian Cinema is seen against the background of what Romanian cinema had been in the state socialist era (1947-1989) and in the immediate post-socialist (or „transition”) years (the 1990s) as well as against the backdrop of the 1990s influential redefinitions of cinematic realism by European filmmakers. While paying special attention to Cristi Puiu’s artistic formation, the talk also glances at the institutional conditions under which this cinema came into being.

Andrei Gorzo is a CREEES Visiting Scholar and assistant professor of Film Studies at the National University of Theatre and Film “I. L. Caragiale” in Bucharest. His research interests include: the aesthetics and politics of the post-2000 New Romanian Cinema; the cinema of the Cold War; the work of Hungarian filmmaker Miklós Jancsó; and the history of found-footage filmmaking. He is the author of three books.