The Happiest Girl in the World

Section: Competition
Directed by: Radu Jude


Cea mai fericită fată din lume
Romania, Netherlands 2009

Dir.: Radu Jude
Scr.: Radu Jude, Augustina Stanciu
Phot.: Marius Panduru
Ed.: Cătălin Cristutiu
Cast: Andreea Boneag, Violeta Popa, Vasile Muraru
Format: 35 mm
Color
100 mins
Language: Romanian voice, English subtitle, Hungarian voice over
www.hifilm.ro

Delia Fratila has won a car in a promotional competition by mailing in labels from juice bottles. She and her parents travel to Bucharest, where she has to appear in a commercial in return. It isn’t much fun for her: the shooting is strenuous and in the breaks she has exhausting arguments with her parents, who have very self-serving ideas about how the prize should be used.

It tells a comedic and sometimes sad tale about the many forms of desires, longings and illusions which money can stir up. The promise that the consumer’s world can make any smalltown girl in today’s Romania the happiest girl in the world remains a dream that will only come true in the commercials. The inspiration for the film came from a real story witnessed by the director. The film is about compromises and lies, about the language of film being used in order to cheat, about happiness, sadness and consumption, about capitalism, and about the way the sun goes down in University Square during the summer.

See also:
	3 women		9 mm
	Child by Children		Hunger
	I Can't Live Without You		NORTH
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