Romania before the New Wave

After kicking off season four last week with Radu Jude, we’re sticking with Romania on the show today. For many film fans outside of the country, Romania means one thing: the New Wave of Cristian Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and co, that stormed to festival success in the 21st century. The cinema of the communist era rarely gets a look in. At Klassiki we’ve just launched a new collection of classic Romanian titles from the 1960s and ‘70s that tries to redress the balance. From wartime epics to New Wave romance and subversive satire, these films reveal a different side of Romanian film and set the scene for contemporary favourites like Radu Jude and Cristi Puiu.

To help make sense of this history, host Sam Goff sits down with Romanian critic and programmer Flavia Dima to discuss the key figures and contexts involved in the evolution of Romanian cinema, as well as going into detail about the four titles in the new Klassiki collection.

Watch these Romanian classics on Klassiki now and read Flavia’s writing on the period here.

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Intro music by Juliet Merchant.