Written by: Cristian Mungiu
Starring: Marin Grigor, Judith State, Macrina Bârlădeanu, Orsolya Moldován, Andrei Finți
Rating: [4/5]
Insular communities facing struggles will find a way to scapegoat anyone or anything from the outside as the cause of their struggles. It serves as a way to deflect from their own deficiencies and find an easy new source of discomfort as the reason for all ills transpiring. A scary and unfortunate phenomenon, and one R.M.N. has no issue in discussing through its narrative in the most blood-boiling manner.
Returning to Romania from Germany to reconnect with his son, Matthias (Marin Grigore) returns and sees a town at unease, mostly stemming from the local bread factory bringing in workers from Sri Lanka. It causes a stir in the town that evolves from a simple boycott of the bakery to a full on movement to have these individuals removed from their community despite them being nothing but a net positive.
Spreading like an infestation within a community, the xenophobia and self-prescribed fear serves as the thesis R.M.N. seeks to communicate as we traverse through this downward spiral. This communal reaction does not stem from one individual spreading it but rather deeply rooted fear finding its way out of the subconscious of these individuals and continuing to fester in a hatred that does not entirely make sense but still manages to prevail. Throughout this film we follow Matthias where he needs to take this all in where he finds himself seen as an ally by all sides and he tries to decide how to play this situation out.
Matthias gets seen as a man in the community who needs to stand firm against the idea of these Sri Lankan men brought into the village to work and take jobs that should be to the current inhabitants. On the other hand, his love, Csilla (Judith State) works for the bread factory who ultimately made this decision both for refugee purposes but also because of the grant incentive by the European Union trying to make this a reality for these displaced individuals. The way Matthias can seemingly weave his way through both sides of this issue makes it dangerous emotionally and physically for him in ensuring he finds himself on the right side. A moral and ethical quandary to say the least.
When examining the xenophobia at play in the film, we see some of the classic forms of it but things get quite nasty in what gets shared about the hesitancy these villagers have about these immigrant workers. Some of the anger gets down to the level of questioning the integrity of cleanliness of the bread these individuals help in processing, indicating an insinuation of a lack of cleanliness for no other reason than them being outsiders. This hate continually hits us across the face and only further seeks to enrage, which all comes to a boiling point at a town hall that serves as quite the devastating single-shot use of a group arguing that Cristian Mungiu puts together. We see person after person share their bigoted views and ideas of what to do with these immigrant workers with Csilla trying to provide some reason and common sense, which unsurprisingly falls on deaf ears. Then we have the government officials who called the town hall because of the unending unrest, and their reaction to all of this really sheds some light on how they also feel about the circumstance. Not often would anyone describe a town hall where people shout and discuss a manner to be an enthralling climax for a film but the way it gets shot here makes for a pulse-pounding sequence where we have no idea what will happen and what resolution will find agreement amongst the crowd.
While not having seen other Mungiu film other than his exceptional 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, putting these two films together displays the director’s affinity of getting into wildly uncomfortable situations. He loves to push the resolve of his characters to their absolute limits and he does so again here. He sets this bleak tone around this entire circumstance and when it gets coupled with the cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru, it sets the tone for the general mood of this village and how a spark can quickly cause a fire. Mungiu’s approach in this film certainly does not come across as subtle but it drives home the point of this collective rather than individuals. It strips away the idea of “a few bad apples” but rather an outright rejection of any pervasive idea of an outside source and in this instance it happens to manifest in immigrant workers looking for employment to sustain themselves.
Quite the film to take in and with some imagery that really thematically pieces it all together, R.M.N. certainly will evoke some stress to the individuals taking in this story as the tension never really breaks. It leaves the audience in fear of not only the psyche of this community as a whole, but also those poor immigrants and wondering what will happen to them if things get out of hand in the village. Cristian Mungiu delivers once again in his examination that only further builds my resolve to watch his other films, even if he’s certainly established himself as a filmmaker with intention of making his audience walk away from his movies with a smile but rather shaken by what we just watched.
Films with Josh 
