Monalisas Without a Smile: Female Characters in Romanian Cinema between the ‘false feminism’ of the socialist era and the ‘antifeminism’ of the 1990s

Abstract

In Romanian Socialist cinema, filmul de actualitate (topical/contemporary/everyday life film) represented a topical genre that was supposed to reflect and legitimize – using the propaganda apparatus – an ideal but fictional society in which the protagonist had to be a hero with exceptional qualities, who reflected and promoted socialist ideology. My paper takes into account cinematic representations of female characters in this genre that reflect the Communist Party’s ideology regarding the role women should play in a socialist society. Once emancipated through work, their social roles changed in the 1970s as they became the symbol of motherhood. I will also discuss the way these representations changed after the fall of the communist regime and how the postcommunist transition highlighted the emergence of a new type of femininity when women were considered exportable goods, a product fitted for the free market.