Also showing Oct 28
Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu’s first feature since Graduation (screened at VTIFF 2017) is set in a Transylvanian village during the 2019 holiday season. At the center of the drama are short-fused laborer Matthias and his erstwhile lover Csilla, a bakery manager whose hiring of Sri Lankan immigrants exposes deep-seated nativism among the multiethnic villagers of Romanian, Hungarian, and German descent. Mungiu, perhaps best known for his 2007 Palme d’Or-winning abortion thriller 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, is a master of slow-burning tension and moments of unexpected poignancy. Highlighted by a bravura extended take at a town hall forum that alludes to pandemic-era racism against Asians, R.M.N.’s indictment of xenophobic NIMBYism resonates far beyond the Romanian borders. ~LB