Best Romanian drama movies
A curated collection of popular drama movies from Romania.

The History of Love (2016)

Michael the Brave (1971)
Michael the Brave (1971)
An epic fresco depicting the reign (1593-1601) of Mihai Pătrașcu (better known as "Mihai Viteazul" / "Michael the Brave"), the famous prince who united the three provinces: Transalpine Vallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, into the country of Romania, at the end of the 16th century (1599-1601) against the opposition of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires, this movie features large scale battle scenes mixed with political intrigues, murderous treachery, and family drama.

The Dacians (1967)
The Dacians (1967)
The great King of Dacia, Decebal (Decebalus), is disposed to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to keep the integrity of his people. His own son, Cotyso, is given to the god Zamolxis to the dismay of the King and his daughter Meda. Septimius Severus, a young Roman devoted to his adopted country, must make the choice between his blood origins and the culture he was introduced to.

Then I Sentenced Them All to Death (1972)
Then I Sentenced Them All to Death (1972)
A young boy is adopted by a priest and his wife during the Nazi occupation of Romania during the Second World War. He befriends the village idiot, who's despised by everyone else. When a German is killed in the last days of the war, the village is threatened with total destruction unless the murderer is handed over. The villagers decide to hand over the idiot.

Forest of the Hanged (1965)
Forest of the Hanged (1965)
In 1916 as an officer in the Habsburg Army ethnic Romanian Apostol Bologa is torn between remaining loyal to the Habsburgs or deserting to the Romanian Army across enemy lines.

Ecaterina Teodoroiu (1979)
Ecaterina Teodoroiu (1979)
The story of heroine Ecaterina Teodoroiu, the only woman who fought in the Romanian Army during World War 1.

The Father Who Moves Mountains (2021)
The Father Who Moves Mountains (2021)
Mircea, former Intelligence officer, finds out that his son from has gone missing in the mountains. He travels there to find him. After days of searches, Mircea put his own rescue team together, leading to conflict with the local squad.

The Goat and Her Three Kids (2022)
The Goat and Her Three Kids (2022)
Secluded from the world, a single mother of three must defend what's left of her family from a cold-blooded killer, at all costs.

Dogs (2016)
Dogs (2016)
Roman returns to the land near the Ukrainian border he has just inherited from his grandfather. Fully decided to sell this vast but desolate property, he is warned by the local cop that his grandfather was a local crime lord and his men will not let go of the land - and their smuggling business - without a fight.

Everybody in Our Family (2012)
Everybody in Our Family (2012)
Marius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother, which causes Marius a deep frustration. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill but he doesn't believe it and insists to take her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humor, violence, childish songs, police interventions and love statements.
Miss Christina (2013)
Miss Christina (2013)
The film is an adaptation of the well known short story "Miss Christina" by Mircea Eliade. Moscu arrived at the mansion with his girlfriend, Sanda, the young artist Egor Paşchievici notes that her entire family worships Miss Christina, her aunt murdered in unclear circumstances when she was just 20 years old, during the riots of 1907. Egor is inexplicably drawn into a portrait of Miss Christina and begins to dream. Soon, however, the boundary between dream and reality is blurred and Miss Christina, love Egor, is brought back to life through occult rituals even by her family. When realized, however, that life is in danger Egor Sanda decides to fight the ghost.

Elevator (2008)
Elevator (2008)
A boy and a girl, both teenagers, want to get away from the world and be alone for a while, so they hide in an abandoned factory on the outskirts. But there they fall in a trap of their own intention, and get stuck in the cargo elevator. There is no one around to hear them, and nobody knows their whereabouts. Tension arises after each failed attempt to escape, while they also have to deal with the fact that their entire universe is now reduced to a metal box smaller than a room.

Beyond the Hills (2012)
Beyond the Hills (2012)
Alina returns to Romania from Germany, hoping to bring Voichita—the only person in the world she loves and was loved by—back with her. But Voichita has found God, and God is the hardest lover of all to best.

Tuesday, After Christmas (2010)
Tuesday, After Christmas (2010)
Paul Hanganu loves two women. Adriana his wife and the mother of their daughter, the woman with whom he's shared the thrills of the past ten years, and Raluca the woman who has made him redefine himself. He has to leave one of them before Christmas.

Poppy Field (2022)
Poppy Field (2022)
A young Romanian gendarme, Cristi, tries to find the balance between two apparently opposing parts of his identity: that of a man working in a macho hierarchical environment and that of a closeted gay person who tries to keep his personal life a secret. Cristi is called in for an intervention at a movie theatre, where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has interrupted the screening of a queer film. After one of the protesters threatens to out him, Cristi spirals out of control.

A Higher Law (2023)
A Higher Law (2023)
Ecaterina, a high school Religion teacher and wife of the town priest, gets involved with Iuliu, a 16-year-old student with a troubled past. Ecaterina tries to keep him under control, but she loses her own sense of control in this process.

Puzzle (2013)
Puzzle (2013)
A repressed middle aged man realizes that his life had become one of misery and loneliness. After becoming friends with a blind writer he had to evict from his house, he finds the inspiration and courage he needs to break all the rules he had been forced to abide by and to reconnect with life's joy and excitement.

Jachetele galbene (1979)
Jachetele galbene (1979)
A children mystery movie. A group of kids calling themselves "The Yellow Jackets" solve the mystery of disappearing artifacts from a local museum.

Dismissed (2024)
Dismissed (2024)
A freelance journalist investigates a mysterious AI corporation after a fire claims the life of its star employee. As he races to uncover the truth, he unravels a web of secrets, exposing the AI software's dangerous impact on the world and on the sanity of its employees.

The Miracle of Tekir (2016)
The Miracle of Tekir (2016)
In the heart of the Danube Delta, superstition and religion are mixed together, like the earth and water that make up the mysterious mud from Tekir’s area, not far away. Chased away from her village because of her mysterious pregnancy, Mara finds herself employed at the Europa Hotel, providing treatment for infertile women using this miraculous mud. As she meets the rich and eccentric Mrs. Lili, Mara questions her beliefs and intuitions. The relationship between the two women is the key of the miracle of Tekir, between magic and power, tradition and modernity.

Aferim! (2015)

The New Year That Never Came (2024)
The New Year That Never Came (2024)
On the brink of counter-revolution in 1989 Romania, six lives intersect amidst protests and personal struggles, leading to the explosive fall of Ceausescu and the communist regime.

Queen Marie of Romania (2019)
Queen Marie of Romania (2019)
Devastated by the First World War and plunged into political controversy, Romania's every hope accompanies its Queen on her mission to Paris, to lobby for its great unification's international recognition at the 1919 Peace Talks.