The Romanian New Wave () is a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

of realist and often minimalist films made in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

since the mid- aughts, starting with two award-winning shorts by two Romanian directors, namely Cristi Puiu's ''Cigarettes and Coffee'', which won the Short Film Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, and Cătălin Mitulescu's '' Trafic'', which won the

Short Film Palme d'Or Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known a ...

at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

later that same year.

Themes

Aesthetically, Romanian New Wave films share an austere, realist and often

minimalist In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

approach. Furthermore,

black humour Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

tends to feature prominently. While several of them are set in the late 1980s, near the end of

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

's totalitarian rule over

communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

, exploring themes of freedom and resilience ('' 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'', '' The Paper Will Be Blue'', '' The Way I Spent the End of the World'', ''

Tales from the Golden Age ''Tales from the Golden Age'' () is a 2009 Romanian Anthology film, omnibus film. It was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The film is composed of six whimsical, yet blackly comic short stories, ...

''), others, however ('' The Death of Mr. Lazarescu'', ''

California Dreamin' "California Dreamin" is a song written by John and Michelle Phillips in 1963 and first recorded by Barry McGuire. The best-known version is by the Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released it as a single in Dec ...

'', '' Tuesday, After Christmas''), unfold in modern-day Romania, and delve into the ways the transition to democracy and

free-market capitalism In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

has shaped Romanian society after the

fall of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

in late 1989.

Award-winning films and directors

Romanian New Wave films and directors have won a significant number of important international movie awards at prestigious FIAPF-accredited

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

s. Below are a few notable examples: Legend:

Themes

Award-winning films and directors

Other notable works

References

Further reading