
The title may suggest an inward focus, but this gripping Romanian drama from Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Graduation) addresses social pressures that are wreaking havoc all over the world, including in Canada: globalization, immigration, xenophobia, and economic injustice are all part of the story’s thick stew, no matter that almost all the action is restricted to a small town in Transylvania.
Matthias (Marin Grigore) returns from his job in a German abattoir when he hears that his eight-year-old son has stopped speaking, spooked by something he has seen in the woods. Alienated from his wife, Matthias recommences a desultory affair with Csilla, who works at the town’s only business of note, a bread factory. Despite high local unemployment, the factory is unable to attract labour and is forced to bring in economic migrants from Sri Lanka. The townsfolk are horrified.
Mungiu charts these twin narratives with his customary dispassionate eye, an apparent objectivity that mirrors his characters’ terse civility, and which should absolutely not be taken at face value. The world is going to hell and Mungiu is taking the bull by the horns.
Marin Grigore, Judith State, Macrina Bârlădeanu, Orsolya Moldován, Andrei Finți
Romania/France
2022
In Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, French, and Sinhala with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando's definitive performance as Terry Malloy, a New York dockworker (and once a promising boxer) who loses faith in his union and his smarter but corrupt older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) after a whistleblower is murdered.
Walking with Shadows
In Lagos, Nigeria, Ebele Njoko has been running all his life. A search for acceptance and love from his family, has led him to recreate himself as Adrian Njoko, respected father, husband and brother. Suddenly, Adrian's past and secrets catch up with him.
Angela's Shadow
When a socialite visits her nanny’s remote reserve, she discovers her Cree ancestry and delves into her new-found spiritual traditions to save herself and her newborn baby from her husband’s psychotic, and purity-obsessed racism.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
An odd couple comedy laced with lovely songs this is one of those little gems that don't come around very often. Charles wants to reunite his favourite band, and after winning the lottery he has the means to do it, whether they're ready or not.
Familiar Touch
A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.
Fairy Creek
Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).
Credits
Executive Producer
Tudor Reu
Producer
Cristian Mungiu
Screenwriter
Cristian Mungiu
Cinematography
Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editor
Mircea Olteanu
Production Design
Simona Pădurețu
Director

Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu is a Romanian filmmaker born in Iaşi, Romania, in 1968. His debut film, Occident, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2002. His second feature, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), was awarded the Palme d’Or in Cannes, and Best Film and Best Director at the European Film Awards. Mungiu returned to Cannes in 2009 as a writer-producer-director with the collective episodic film Tales From the Golden Age, and as a writer-director in 2012 with Beyond the Hills, for which he won Best Screenplay. He won Best Director at Cannes for his fifth feature, Graduation (2016).
Filmography: Occident (2002); 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007); Beyond the Hills (2012); Graduation (2016)