Director Cristian Mungiu's latest film is described like this in the MIFF guide: “After quitting his job in Germany, hulking factory worker Matthias returns home to his small Transylvanian village. There, he hopes to reconnect with his young son Rudi, who’s been left in the care of his estranged wife Ana, and rendered speechless by something terrifying in the woods. Meanwhile, Matthias is having an affair with Csilla, who manages a small factory that has just hired some Sri Lankan workers – an arrangement that shatters the tenuous peace of the community and brings their fears, prejudices and conflicts to the surface.”
I hadn't planned on writing a review for “R.M.N.”, but it is a film that still hasn't left my mind since I saw it days ago, so I thought maybe it is a sign to put pen to paper and talk about this brand new Romanian film. First up, I should explain the title, which I had to google after I watched it, since I had no idea why it was titled that. “R.M.N.” are actually the initials of the Romanian translation of an M.R.I, which is actually a clever title because the film is a look under the skin of a small multi-ethnic community, and its prejudices, fears and internal conflicts of its residents.
Cristian Mungiu has created another one of his fantastic social dramas with “R.M.N.” I particularly like the way he builds a story and lets it evolve naturally. He starts from a character-first basis, always creating fully rounded and developed characters with real world problems and issues they are dealing with. Mungiu also does a fantastic job of revealing these characters to us, and we feel like we know them intimately rather quickly. What is interesting about “R.M.N.” is that from where the story and film begins, it ends in a completely different place than you would expect, as different plot lines naturally begin to take on more importance to the story as a whole than the strand we followed initially. It is not at all jarring either, because the story evolves naturally and organically, like it does in real life. When “R.M.N.” begins we follow Matthias who has just been fired from his job in Germany, so heads back home to his family in Romania, but when he gets there he is shocked to find his young son no longer speaks due to something terrifying he saw in the surrounding woods. Matthias is incensed by the fact that his wife is babying the young boy by overprotecting him, and thus decides to teach him to finally become a man. He does this via aggressive parenting, taking the boy camping and hunting, teaching him how to shoot and look after himself. Due to his aggression shown towards the boy, and the fact that the boy is still so young, you feel that this is somehow going to all end in tragedy, but then the story naturally evolves into a tale of xenophobia when the local bakery factory hires three bakers from Sri Lanka, and the locals react negatively to this. Tensions and anger arise and worsen, as the bakery refuses to bend to local pressure to fire the foreign workers. What follows is a fantastic and disturbing look at the xenophobia and hypocrisy of a community, as well as the terrifying notion of a pack mentality.
As is the norm for Cristian Mungiu, he never judges any of his characters, but rather tells his story as honestly and realistically as possible. This gives the drama incredible weight because it feels so real and thus is easily relatable. He never shows a world of black or white, only grey, where no character is a total angel or demon, everyone has their flaws and strong elements too. As relatable as the story is, I think that for once “R.M.N.” is a film that caters to local audiences, if for nothing else than the constant language changes, often mid-conversation. The community where the film is set consists of locals who originate from Romania, Hungary and Germany, but in terms of languages in the film, as well as those for the above nations, English and French are also spoken at times. It is a subtitler's nightmare because personally I do not have an ear for either Romanian or Hungarian, so cannot tell when they change, and it is actually important in this film to know that difference because it figures into the plot. What they have done is change the colour of the subtitles each time the language changes, although I think Romanian is always white. Personally I would have liked if they had chosen a set colour for each language spoken, so while it is not a perfect solution, what they have come up with does help, but like I say, local audiences will understand the language intricacies much better than foreign audiences.
“R.M.N.” is a stunningly beautiful film from a visual standpoint. Mungiu has reunited with his “Graduation” cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru and the two of them have created magic together, through both the camera and their use of the stunning Romanian locations. Romania in the winter is just gorgeous, and so many times I found myself stunned by the beauty onscreen. The snow covered forest and especially the local mine looked amazing. Even when shooting indoors, the film has been shot with cooler colour temperatures, with the production design using a lot of winter colours like blues, greys and whites too. Aside from looking “pretty”, the visuals perfectly encapsulate the tone and atmosphere of the film as “R.M.N.” is a very cold film. In terms of the season the story takes place, to the whole tone of the film, to the character interactions between one another; coldness permeates through this film.
Performances in the film are all excellent and very realistic, which helps in the fantastic character development and natural story progression in “R.M.N.” As great as all the above elements are, the film's strongest aspect is its story line, and its complex and layered look at human nature when the town's bigotry is revealed. Multiple points of views are expressed, with the film never taking sides, although it asks many questions. Personally I found the majority of the townsfolk's hypocrisy just shocking particularly because they cannot see it within themselves. Saying these bakery jobs should have gone to locals when none actually applied is disgraceful, but then to justify this by saying that is because locals have gone abroad to work as that is where both the work and money is, which is exactly what these Sri Lankan guys are doing by trying to get work in Romania. Their refusal to then not buy the bread because these foreigners have had their hands on the bread when they are making it, and they are deemed unclean just because they are different. The fact that a large majority of the locals are themselves not originally from Romania, but rather Hungary, is brought up but only increases the tensions amongst everyone. It is particularly frightening when this tension eventually explodes into violence and death threats against these poor Sri Lankans and the bakers that support them. Social media is used as a weapon against them, before a variation of the KKK is created to try and create a fear amongst these poor men who only want to do their job and be left alone. An aspect that I liked was how the manager and owner of the bakery are steadfast in their support of their workers, as are their workmates, as they have actually taken the time to get to know them and work with them, and know they are beautiful and lovely people. This togetherness is then used against them at the town meeting with others saying the bakery workers shouldn't get a vote because they are “biased” in their opinion because they know them. It is interesting though that when her bottom line is threatened, with everyone refusing to buy her bread, how the ideals and beliefs of the bakery's owner starts to bend, as she looks for a way to offload these poor Sri Lankan men, much to the disgust of her floor manager.
The film essentially climaxes at an extended scene set at a town meeting where everyone is allowed to have their say on the issues (although it is telling that the Sri Lankan men have not been invited themselves), where the town's bigotry and xenophobia really comes to light. Some of the uninformed opinions used as reasons to expel these men are just horrible. Particularly when they are spoken by leaders in the community, like the local priest and doctor, who should know better. Something that is repeated by many people in the meeting in a “I'm not racist” way is “I have nothing against these people, as long as they stay in their country”. It is also horrifying watching the pack mentality of the group try to dissuade the smaller factions just through their size and volume of their voice. In and of itself, it is an excellent scene, but within the movie as a whole, it stops it dead cold. Stylistically, it is completely different too, as it is shot in a single (very long) take with a stationary camera. It is almost a documentary approach, but it looks and feels completely different from the rest of the film. The acting is extraordinary in the scene, and as fascinating and thematically complex as the scene is, I still think it works against the movie as a whole. Whilst nothing is truly resolved by the end of the meeting, we understand the path they are heading. The film does have a couple of more scenes after this, before it ends in a rather unsatisfying and very surreal and symbolic manner. Whilst I was a fan of this film throughout, I was disappointed in its ending, which did not work for me.
Overall, Cristian Mungiu has created another fantastic social drama with “R.M.N.” exploring the sickness hidden not very deep under the surface of a local multi-ethnic Romanian community. Complex themes of bigotry and xenophobia are explored throughout maturely and without judgement. All of the actors are stellar and the film is just gorgeous to look at. While I found the ending rather unsatisfactory and a bit frustrating, what comes before it is so impressive and well layered, that I would still highly recommend “R.M.N.”
3.5 Stars.
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