The gravest problem the new wave directors face, however, is the virtually non-existent national audience. The problem has nothing to do with movies being geared toward the foreign market and failing to connect Romanians, but the continuing drop in the number of movie theaters, from 450 in 1989 to less than 40 now, in a country of 20 million people.
Part of the blame for this goes to capitalism, specifically the availability of 50 channels on cable TV and many other choices of entertainment that eat away at the popularity of cinema.
The situation is exacerbated by the commentary-filled films that are still common and drive audiences away, and by the fact that movie theaters are the last vestiges of the communist regime.
"The lifestyle has changed. People now want to go to the mall, have a can of coke first, go shopping and then go to a movie. No one will ever want to go to the 1,000-seat [state-owned] theaters in the suburbs," said Mungiu.
Piracy and intellectual property theft also gets a big share of blame for endangering theaters. "It's popular to watch movies in Romania. It's just not popular to pay to watch them," Mungiu said.
To press the government to do something about the failing filmmaking infrastructure, Mungiu took the matter into his own hands by organizing a caravan tour of his Cannes-winning film to cities and towns that no longer have a theater.
The film has been watched by 70,000 people nationwide, a noteworthy accomplishment considering that the number of Romanians going to the theater to see Pixar's animated film Ratatouille was around 50,000, according to Mungiu.
After his victory in Cannes, offers from Hollywood flooded into Mungiu's life. The 39-year-old director, who started out as a teacher and journalist, confessed that his head spun at first, but to have total freedom and control over his art is still a top concern. "I have even been asked to make a film in Bollywood ... . Who knows, it may be a possibility," he said.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is scheduled to hit local theaters next Friday. To get a first-hand experience with the ongoing revolution in post-1989 Romanian cinema, check out TGHFF's program of Romanian New Wave films and the retrospective on Lucian Pintilie, the only Romanian director, Mungiu said, respected by the younger generation of filmmakers and whose 1968's Reconstruction is deemed the best film ever made under the communist regime.
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