Cel mai român dintre pământeni: protagonistul în filmul românesc de consum
Rezumat
The Earth’s Most Romanian Son: The Protagonist within Mainstream Romanian Cinema
Abstract: TSharing the very same supposition that Siegfried Kracauer had of German cinema 100 years later, this paper analyses the protagonist of mainstream Romanian cinema as a means of understanding the socio-political landscape of Romania. In an attempt at bridging the gap between strict hermeneutics and political science, the study employs a mixed methodological framework, combining distant reading and systematic content analysis of protagonists and narratives from the ten highest-grossing Romanian films released between 2020 and 2024. The analysis focuses on the concept of habitus as suggested by Pierre Bourdieu as means of understanding Romania’s struggle to obtain capital, be it social or economic. From among the twenty protagonists analyzed, the findings reveal a dominant protagonist type that is male, heteronormative, urban, ethnically Romanian, and positioned between the lower and middle classes, whose primary narrative drive is the acquisition of economic capital. This model recurs often through morally dubious or illegal means and is reinforced by a production ecosystem reliant on neoliberal logics. The paper proposes that Romanian commercial cinema tacitly reinforces neoliberal myths and carries a latent potential for ideological radicalization through the repetitive construction of a charismatic hero who ultimately preserves through any means necessary, while shedding empathy or solidarity.
Keywords: Romanian Cinema, Vidra Productions, Bravo Productions, Romanian film and politics, Romanian habitus, capitalism, economic and cultural capital, Siegfried Kracauer, Pierre Bourdieu
Citation suggestion: Pop, Șerban Mark. “Cel mai român dintre pământeni: protagonistul în filmul românesc de consum”. Transilvania, no. 4 (2026): 81-96.
https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2026.4.07.
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