Underestimated and unknown
Romanian cinema is known all around the world. Nonetheless, in Romania it is constantly not appreciated. Everywhere it is identified with poverty, amateurish and inaccurate production. However, Romanian directors not only made many splendid movies, but also received numerous prestigious awards.
The first Romanian film was made in 1912. Before the war many interesting movies, which passed to the canon of classics, were produced. After World War II, film industry was under a strong influence of the communist government, so practically all the productions involved socialist propaganda, which was
a requirement in order to obtain state funds.
In 1956 Ion Gopo’s short film "Short story” won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for the best short film. It became the first world known Romanian movie.
For many years, the world was not interested in cinematography of the south-eastern Europe very much. The exception were the works of the controversial director Lucian Pintilie. The display of his work "Reconstituirea” (1968) was banned by the Romanian officials. The author was forced to emigrate to France.
The Romanian New Wave (Noul val românesc) is a genre of realist and often minimalist films made in Romania. The New Wave of the Romanian cinema began to speak up when the unknown, at that moment, Cristian Mungiu received the Palme d'Or at Cannes for his social drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, and it started when Cătălin Mitulescu’s “Trafic”, won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.
History of cinematography
New Wave Birth