Eliade spent three years in India (1928-1931) as a philosophy student. During that time, he had a passionate affair with a young Bengali woman named Maitreyi Devi, the daughter of his mentor, the poet Rabindranath Tagore’s secretary. Eliade wrote the novel in Romanian in 1933, publishing it under the title Maitreyi – a scandalous hit that exposed the affair without the woman’s consent. Maitreyi Devi later wrote her own response, Na Hanyate (It Does Not Die), from her perspective.

Abstract This paper examines the 1988 film The Bengali Night (original French title: La Nuit Bengali), its cross-cultural reception, and the circulation and characteristics of Romanian subtitling for the film. Focusing on translation choices, subtitle norms in late-1980s Romania, and the film’s positioning within Western adaptations of South Asian literature, the study combines film analysis, comparative translation examples, and historical context to argue that Romanian subtitling both mediates and reshapes the film’s cultural meanings for local audiences.

: Filmed on location in India, it captures the lush, atmospheric settings of Bengal, providing a vivid backdrop to the emotional tension of the plot. Subtitle Availability