R.M.N.

Inspired by true events, Cristian Mungiu’s drama is a compelling portrait of a Transylvanian community and what lies dormant within it.

For his latest film, the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has chosen to set his tale in what is the famed region of his country known as Transylvania. The town in which most of the film takes place has been given the fictional name of Recia but, while the location is notably well captured by the photographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru, there is a clear sense that Mungiu’s screenplay has wider relevance. His earlier films have been very much centred on the experience of living in Romania but R.M.N. although fitting in with that also plays as a broader portrayal of life today. The essential fact about Recia is that it is home not only for Romanians but for many Hungarians along with Germans and Roma too. That makes it an all too suitable town for a study of present-day tensions linked to the rise of nationalism and to the increased hostility to foreigners and to migrants which has come to mark the present decade. 

Mungiu has always been a serious artist and his second feature, the abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days made him an international name in 2007. He has certainly become an assured filmmaker whose work demands attention even if his judgment is sometimes in doubt. That certainly applies to this latest offering of his. I do find myself questioning his final scenes which struck me as too ambiguous to provide a satisfactory conclusion, but for the most part R.M.N. is a confident and gripping work.

What Mungiu is giving us is a portrait of a community and consequently his film with its intermingling storylines involving interesting characters is one in which their true function is to contribute to a wider psychological picture (the film’s main precursor in this respect comes not from Romanian cinema but is to be found instead in Michael Haneke’s classic study of a German village prior to the First World War, 2009’s The White Ribbon). The film starts with Matthias (Marin Grigore) who had gone to Germany to work in a slaughterhouse but who leaves after hitting out and injuring a man who has called him a lazy gypsy. On his return to Recia, he gets a decidedly cool reception from his wife, Ana (Macrina Bârlǎdeanu), but persuades his former lover, Csilla (Judith State), the Hungarian manager of the local bread factory, to allow him back into her bed.

Before long we start to consider what it is that we feel about the various characters beginning with Matthias himself. His violent action seen early on puts a question mark on him as does the fact that Ana responds as she does to his return. Furthermore, the couple have an eight-year-old son, Rudi (Blenyesi Edward Mark), who in the film’s opening scene has a traumatic encounter in the woods (we don't see what it is that he sees but are aware that he has become mute since the experience). Ana's response is to be even more protective of the child but now that he is back Matthias encourages the boy to act macho and Ana disapproves. He is clearly fond of his son and believes that he needs to be toughened up to survive, but do we see Matthias as a good father or not?

Csilla is more obviously a sympathetic figure and, together with the factory owner, Mrs Dénes (Moldován Orsolya), she is involved in giving employment to immigrant workers from Sri Lanka. But it is not Mungiu’s way to oversimplify his characters and he doesn't hesitate to make it clear that these men are being taken on for less money than any locals would expect and with an eye to the bakery being seen as suitable for EU funding. Consequently, when inhabitants of the town prove hostile to these newcomers we see why the strategy might aggravate them. There is at least one other stranger in town, an ecologist named Ben (Victor Benderra) sent by the EU to assess the number of bears in the locality, but most of the other people seen here are figures of the community such as the mayor, a policeman and more than one priest. Indeed, there’s a scene in church when Sri Lankans, wrongly considered to be Muslim, are turned away and, while the attitude of the congregation is more hostile than that of the priest, the latter ultimately fails to give them any moral lead.

Grigore and State are strong leading players, but in this well-cast film all of the citizens are convincingly played. The film builds to a key scene, a community forum debate about the rights and wrongs of the factory employing immigrants. Mungiu continues to observe in a way that leaves judgment up to the viewer and this scene lasting at least a quarter of an hour features the use of a single static camera shot (a device that Mungiu has favoured before but not so lengthily nor so tellingly). With Matthias, Csilla and Mrs. Dénes facing the camera, the increasingly racist attitudes of the other citizens emerge in the comments that are made around them both in the form of voices off and by way of comments from more distantly seen attendees. This is presented as a re-emergence of old hostilities that have been under the surface somewhat hidden away but have now found an opportunity to burst forth again.

All this makes for deliberately uncomfortable viewing as the film challenges us to admit that the inhabitants of Recia as portrayed here are akin to many communities around the world. What follows this scene of debate, which in itself is a veritable tour-de-force, is relatively short but it comes across as a rather confusing anticlimax. Nevertheless, R.M.N. is a film that demands attention and deserves to be seen and discussed.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Marin Grigore, Judith Slate, Macrina Bârlǎdeanu, Moldován Orsolya, Racz Endre, Bíró Józséf, Amitha Jayasinghe, Gihan Edirisinghe, Nuwan Karunaratha, Blenyesi Edward Mark, Victor Benderra, Andrei Finți.

Dir Cristian Mungiu, Pro Cristian Mungiu, Screenplay Cristian Mungiu, Ph Tudor Vladimir Panduru, Pro Des Simona Paduretu, Ed Mircea Olteanu, Costumes Ciresica Cuciuc.

Mobra Films/Why Not Productions/France 3 Cinéma/Les Films du Fleuve/Film i Väst/Le Pacte-Picturehouse Entertainment.
127 mins. Romania/France/Sweden/Belgium. 2022. US Rel: 7 April 2023. UK Rel: 22 September 2023. Cert. 15.