Diplomacy as screen narrative

Romania's perception abroad has been influence by the stigma of one of the harshest communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The experience of communism has created a general scare on any government involvement in shaping the country's image, on one hand. On the other hand, the work on complying with the EU membership requirements had a strong internal focus and the external perception was often overlooked. In the midst of all of this, one particular area of Romanian culture, its cinema, gained more and more popularity. The real break-through came in 2005 when Romanian films started to become a fixture in the programmes of the major festivals, such as Cannes and Berlin- not only being selected, but also awarded. But once the initial thrill has passed several important questions have arisen: Is this development sustainable? Can it compensate for a national film industry? Asked less often, but equally important is the issue that this paper is trying to help clarify: What do they bring to the country? Can their success be capitalized on- from a cultural diplomacy perspective or otherwise?