R.M.N.

A small town in Romania experiences the push-and-pull of economic migration in Palme d’Or-winning director Cristian Mungiu’s escalatingly tense drama.

Matthias is returning home to his small town after working abroad and things have changed. His young son Rudi has witnessed something in the woods on the way to school and is rendered non-verbal as a result. His former flame Csilla runs a bread factory and is forced to recruit migrant workers when the locals refuse to work for minimum wage. Upon his return, Matthias discovers racism on the rise. It’s a racist slur here and there at first, but soon tensions rise.

Curator’s Note
Cristian Mungiu has a long and celebrated relationship with the Cannes Film Festival. In 2007, he won the Palme d’Or for his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, and since then, each of his films has been selected to screen in competition. It has been a remarkable run of films. Aside from the Palme d'Or, he received the Best Director prize for Graduation, and Beyond the Hills won awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actress, actually two, with both of the film's lead actors sharing the prize. 

Mungiu’s new film Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, continues this pattern.