Romanian Cinematic Nationhood Florentina C. Andreescu* University of North Carolina, Wilmington Abstract This article analyses the way the concept of nation is reflected in film using the theory of cinematic nationhood and the method of relational constructivism. More specifically, it looks at how the nation can be legitimised when it occupies a strategic position within the national structure of fantasy and when it is closely associated with the most relevant commonplaces present within the social space. The article further investigates the situation in which the concept of nation loses legitimacy because of a change in the way it is imagined. The research addresses the case of Romania, choosing three films representing three distinct periods and characterised by different forms of political and economic organisation: commu- nism, transition, and post-transition. Introduction This article identifies the transformation within the understanding of the concept of nation in the Romanian social context throughout three distinct time frames. The first time frame represents the 1970s in which, within the Romanian context, we encounter communism and the planned economy.The second time frame is the early 1990s when Romanian society was undergoing a rough transition to democ- racy and capitalism. The third time frame is represented by the recent post- transition years, which are characterised by a more stable market economy and democracy, and by Romania’s membership in the European Union. My main field of investigation is composed of three films, each one produced during one of the time frames mentioned, because of film’s ability to reflect the main social discourse as well as the society’s structure of fantasy. 1 In my analysis of the three films, I identify a first discourse relying greatly on Marxist concepts, which later was replaced by a discourse engaging elements specific to capitalism. * Florentina C. Andreescu is a lecturer at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her work has appeared in Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, and the Tamkang Journal of Interna- tional Affairs. She is presently completing a book project entitled From Communism to Capitalism: Nation and State in Romanian Cultural Production. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 12, No. 3, 2012 483