2022 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 5 – Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N.

Winner of the Palme d’Or in 2007 field for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and double prize take in 2012 for Beyond the Hills, Cristian Mungiu has only premiered his films in Cannes. In 2002, he presented Occident in the Directors’ Fortnight and had saw thew short film omnibus Tales From the Golden Age be presented in the Un Certain Regard section in 2009. His last film Graduation (Bacalaureat) was a comp selection in 2016, so this about seven years between productions. Featuring some alumni from films past, R.M.N. is his fourth film selected in competition.

Uneasily moving away from a factory floor in a German manufacturing plant, Matthias goes back home to Transylvania to find his personal life to be in shambles and that his own village is hiring immigrants to perform low paying work that he himself would not take. As we come to expect with the master filmmaker from Romania, this is cerebrally dense and sneaks up with you with its political discourse and criticism of this pocket of society.

With the slimmest of margins, one of our most anticipated films of the year is now have a new leader as the best graded film among our critics. Twelve of our twenty critics weighed in for an average score of 3.3.

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