A Slight Unease About Capitalism: Radu Jude’s The Happiest Girl in the World and the New Romanian Cinema

Abstract

The article discusses the aesthetics and the politics of the so-called New Romanian Cinema (a major post-2005 sensation on the international art-cinema circuit), succintly assessing its novelty in both a national and an international cinematic context. It then proceeds to discuss Radu Jude’s debut feature, The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), as a NRC film, typical in some ways, atypical in others. The paper highlights the film’s critique of advertising and the nuclear family.