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<p>The paper discusses Radu Muntean 2021 film, <italic>Î</italic><italic>ntregalde</italic> focusing on the representation of rural landscapes and the encounter between different social classes. The film marks multiple displacements within the director’s oeuvre, epitomized as “the chronicler” of the middle class in contemporary Romanian cinema. The spatial displacement from middle class urban spaces towards mountain and rural areas and the shift from the distant picturesqueness of landscape to the experience of landscape as dwelling, as inhabited and sensed environment mediated through textural images enables unsettling embodied, affective encounters both with the natural environment and between different social classes. In this way, the film addresses the question of class differences and lays bare the socio-economic inequalities between the urban middle class and the countryside without reducing rural characters to clichéd figurants in a picturesque or sombre countryside decorum. The film’s critical reflection on a form of occasional humanitarian aid and middle class philanthropy does not relativize the concept of charity, altruism and help but rather points to the growing gap of social inequalities (and the crisis of care) in the context of contemporary capitalism.<sup>1</sup></p>
</abstract>

The paper discusses Radu Muntean 2021 film, Întregalde focusing on the representation of rural landscapes and the encounter between different social classes. The film marks multiple displacements within the director’s oeuvre, epitomized as “the chronicler” of the middle class in contemporary Romanian cinema. The spatial displacement from middle class urban spaces towards mountain and rural areas and the shift from the distant picturesqueness of landscape to the experience of landscape as dwelling, as inhabited and sensed environment mediated through textural images enables unsettling embodied, affective encounters both with the natural environment and between different social classes. In this way, the film addresses the question of class differences and lays bare the socio-economic inequalities between the urban middle class and the countryside without reducing rural characters to clichéd figurants in a picturesque or sombre countryside decorum. The film’s critical reflection on a form of occasional humanitarian aid and middle class philanthropy does not relativize the concept of charity, altruism and help but rather points to the growing gap of social inequalities (and the crisis of care) in the context of contemporary capitalism.1

Rural Landscapes and Affective Encounters in Radu Muntean’s Film, <italic>Întregalde</italic>

Research Fellow at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Rural Landscapes and Affective Encounters in Radu Muntean’s Film, 

The paper discusses Radu Muntean 2021 film, Întregalde focusing on the representation of rural landscapes and the encounter between different social classes....

Rural Landscapes and Affective Encounters in Radu Muntean’s Film, Întregalde

Published Online: Dec 06, 2023

Page range: 113 - 130

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2023-0016

Keywords
Radu Muntean, rural landscape, affective landscape, affective encounter

© 2023 Katalin Sándor, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Rural Landscapes and Affective Encounters in Radu Muntean’s Film, Întregalde

Published Online: Dec 06, 2023

Page range: 113 - 130

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2023-0016

KeywordsRadu Muntean, rural landscape, affective landscape, affective encounter

© 2023 Katalin Sándor, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Radu Muntean, rural landscape, affective landscape, affective encounter