A quirky short film about some humanitarian aid workers in Romania who are taught a lesson by the villagers they go to help.

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Three young men from Western Europe arrive in Romania with humanitarian aid. The inhabitants of a little mountain village have already been waiting for them. There’s a little give and big take about the whole thing. "Humanitarian Aid" won the Canal+ Prize in the 2002 Clermont-Ferrand Festival. The Romanian Cultural Institute, New York

This film airs on Link TV accompanying the Romanian New Wave feature film "Love Sick" (click here for airtimes):

Love Sick In this Romanian film Kiki, a young college student from Bucharest, explains how on her very first day at university she met Alex, a country girl looking to escape from the provinces, and immediately fell in love with her.

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The Romanian Cultural Institute

The New York Times coverage of the Romanian New Wave

This film is part of the series The Romanian New Wave, a special Cinemondo presentation brought to you by Link TV in association with the Romanian Cultural Institute, New York.

Romanian Cinema on the Global Map

Starting in 2001, Romanian cinema surprised the world with a group of new filmmakers in their late thirties. Their movies - intense, dark humored and down to earth - were consistent with a radical belief that film in Romania could break through artistically. Responding to the hectic and sometimes chaotic post-Communist landscape, they took simple life stories and urban fables, and turned them into globally affecting films.

Broadly acclaimed by the international film press, and stubbornly productive despite a lack of resources, these young directors were regarded at first with disdain by Romanian critics. Yet slowly but surely they gained legitimacy, winning awards at Cannes and other major film festivals, and in the process putting Romanian cinema on the world map.

The films in this special series all come from this “new wave” of Romanian filmmakers. Few of them have had any theatrical exposure in the U.S., and through Cinemondo will reach a nationwide TV audience for the first time. Among the many highlights are Cristi Puiu’s Stuff and Dough, Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest, Muntean’s The Paper Will Be Blue, and Nemescu’s  Marilena From P7. Because documentary filmmaking has flourished alongside fictional films in Romania, three outstanding works are included in the series: Bar de Zi, Cold Waves and Testimony.

The Romanian New Wave series is a joint project of Link TV and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, which arranged for these gems of world cinema to appear on Cinemondo and reach millions of American homes. Enjoy!

Corina Suteu, Director, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York

Steven Lawrence, Vice President, Music & Cultural Programming, Link TV