Traffic, Romania’s Oscar Proposal

Inspired by real events, the robbery committed in 2012 by a group of Romanians at a Dutch museum, the film Traffic talks about the inequality of opportunities, exploitation, complexes and difficulties of adaptation that many migrants face.

Corina Sabău, 20.12.2025, 14:00

Directed by Teodora Ana Mihai and written by Cristian Mungiu, the film “Traffic”(Jaful Secolului) has continued its international journey, recently reaching cinemas in the USA, the UK and Canada. “Traffic” has already been noted in numerous international festivals. It won the Grand Prix in Warsaw in 2024, the Best Film Award at Tertio Millennio in Rome, and the Audience Award in Shanghai. In Sofia, the film received the Balkan Film Award, and in Tokyo, actress Anamaria Vartolomei was rewarded with the award for best female performance. “Traffic”, Romania’s proposal for the 2026 American Academy Awards (Oscar Awards, Best International Film category), dresses a story about Romanian migrants in Europe in a mix of thriller, heist movie and black comedy.

Inspired by real events, the robbery committed in 2012 by a group of Romanians at a Dutch museum, the film talks about the inequality of opportunities, exploitation, complexes and difficulties of adaptation that many migrants face. The cast includes Anamaria Vartolomei (in her first role in Romanian), Rareș Andrici, Ionuț Niculae, Robert Iovan, Macrina Bârlădeanu, Lucian Ifrim, Mirela Nicolau and many other Romanian and foreign actors. Rareș Andrici and Ionuț Niculae, in the leading roles, embody two different types of criminals: one is a bad boy, without scruples and remorse, while the other ends up breaking the law mainly because of the context and his weak character. We spoke with the two actors about the process through which they gave life to the characters they play, Iță and Ginel.

Rareș Andrici: “Regarding the role, I think that what mattered first was the chemistry between us and it is the merit of those who organized the casting and made these choices. Because a role doesn’t work out if you don’t have colleagues who help you or who are generous. My colleagues were very generous and a chemistry was immediately created between us, something due to those who did the casting. Then, of course, it’s our work. Documentation, the way you relate to the character and how you intend to approach it, the way you approach the script and how precise and well it is written. There are numerous factors underlying the success of a project. Regarding my colleagues, I interacted the most with Ionut and Robert Iovan. We got along very well from the beginning. As I was saying, they are very generous, otherwise I don’t think my role would have turned out the way it did, especially since my role implied a position of superiority. And to show my superiority, my partners had to accept an inferior position.”

Ionuț Niculae: “For me too, the role of Ginel was a challenge, but maybe not as big as the character Ită was in the case of Rareș. I say this because my character is not a compositional one, as the one played by Rareș, in the sense that I did not need to look outside for traits or experiences that are not found in me. Like Ginel, I am also a balanced and common-sensical guy, so the biggest challenge was to find the exact dosage that could preserve the differences between the characters, that is, between Ginel, Adrian and Ită. We had to avoid the characters being too similar to each other, and this is the merit of Teodora Ana Mihai, the film’s director. There were a lot of discussions on the set with both Teodora and Cristian Mungiu, during the rehearsal phase. We discussed a lot of details with him, such as the accent, the pauses between words, the importance of facial expressions. As Rareș said, the chemistry between us also helped a lot. Rareș and I were faculty classmates, so we knew each other very well. I didn’t know Anamaria Vartolomei, but I was surprised to meet an extremely generous actress, who, although internationally famous, showed a lot of openness and generosity on the set. The communication was very good and I think that helped the project a lot.”

“In the context of today’s Romania and our ambiguous and deceptive relationship with the West, in light of the conflict between sovereignty and progressivism, I believe that ‘Traffic’ is a good starting point for a deeper and more honest discussion about the society we are part of,” says screenwriter Cristian Mungiu. The second feature film by director Teodora Ana Mihai (who made her debut with the acclaimed “La Civil”) is a Romania-Belgium-Netherlands co-production, with the participation of several well-known producers from Romania (Cristian Mungiu, Tudor Reu, Vlad Rădulescu) and from abroad (Jean Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Annemie Degryse, Jan De Clerq, Delphine Tomson, Jeroen Beker, Linda Van Der Herberg, Sean Wheelan, Kristina Börjeson). (LS)