A discussion about the Romanian New Wave will help to understand why the cinema of this country has become one of the most notable phenomena on the European screen. Through festival victories, post-socialist experience, and the realistic method of directors, listeners will see how strong authorial statements emerge from restrained stories. At the beginning of the 21st century, a movement appeared on the European cinematic map that quickly caught the attention of critics, festivals, and viewers interested in auteur cinema. The occasion was the films "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," which were recognized at Cannes and showed that restrained direction can sound extremely sharp. The lecture will discuss how Romanian directors of the 2000s-2020s work with themes of memory of the socialist past, bureaucracy, family dramas, and everyday life. The realistic method of these authors is built on attention to pauses, awkward conversations, long takes, and almost documentary precision of observation. Our website features the current program of St. Petersburg.