R.M.N.
Cristian Mungiu
© Le Pacte
A few days before Christmas, after leaving his job in Germany, Matthias returns to his native Transylvanian village with its multi-ethnic population. He is worried about his son, Rudi, who is growing up without him, his father, Otto, who has been left alone, and he wants to see Csilla, his ex-girlfriend, again. He tries to become more involved in the upbringing of the boy who has been left in the care of his mother, Ana, for too long, and wants to help him overcome his irrational anxieties. When the factory that Csilla runs decides to recruit foreign employees, the peace of the small community is disturbed, and the anxieties spread to the adults too. Frustrations, conflicts and passions resurface, shattering the semblance of peace in the community.
Screenplay : Cristian Mungiu
Cinematography : Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editing : Mircea Olteanu
Cinematography : Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editing : Mircea Olteanu
Production : Mobra Films
Powerful director, Cristian Mungiu (winner of the Palme d'Or in 2007 for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) shows, in a succession of still shots, the rise of fear, the upsurge of xenophobia, resentment against Europe, the ravages of globalisation and the damage of a male chauvinist education. The scope of his dark, sensory film, with its realism punctuated by dreamlike imagery (dogs bark, bears prowl, horses suggest the invasion of the Huns, and in the forest a boy sees ‘something’ that scares the life out of him), goes beyond the microcosm of Romania, because these primitive impulses, these community tensions, this uncontrollable paranoia, we could well experience them too. (...) Unwilling to simplify, Mungiu raises ethical questions but does not judge. It is up to the spectator to make up their own mind. Not least through a seventeen-minute cadenza, a general assembly of villagers in the village hall, filmed in a two-camera sequence shot and from Csilla’s point of view, in which the cacophony of stereotypes explodes, the drums of identity-based madness, but also the small music of the class struggle. Is there a hint of optimism in this world ruled by terror, white-hot from its own history and bewildered by the passivity of institutions (the church, the town council)? Yes, Matthias wants his son to know how to fight, to show no mercy: ‘If you show mercy, you die first, and I want you to die last!’ Later, the child lets a trapped animal go. It is as if Mungiu has put all his trust in the next generation. (Sophie Grassin; Le Nouvel Obs)