Filmmaker Cristian Mungiu scoops Cannes award

A well-established filmmaker, Cristian Mungiu has grabbed an important award at the International Film Festival in Cannes.

Ştefan Stoica, 23.05.2016, 12:19

Cristian Mungiu is a reputed filmmaker and the recipient of numerous awards. He represents a generation of Romanian directors that has recently contributed to the rise of Romanian cinematography. On Sunday, Mungiu grabbed the award for best directing at the Cannes International Film Festival for his latest “Graduation”, a prize he shared with Olivier Assayas and his film “Personal Shopper”.

Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for his film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, and in 2012 he was awarded the grand prize for his feature “Beyond the Hills”. In his latest production, Mungiu approaches compromise and corruption in Romanian society. It’s always hard to make the right decision, Cristian Mungiu said upon receiving the award.

The other filmmaker who grabbed the shared award for best directing, Olivier Assayas of France, praised the Romanian director, saying he was proud to share this award with a fellow director whom he admires. “Graduation” tells the story of Romeo, a doctor in a small Transylvanian village and a father who struggles to enroll his daughter in a British University. Romeo is close to achieving his goal, but needs his daughter Eliza to get a high score in the Romanian Baccalaureate exam.

Cristian Mungiu referred to the film, saying in an interview on Radio Romania that it is a contemporary story about today’s society: “It’s the perspective of a parent, but also the perspective of many other people in this film, and, if you want, it is also a personal story, a sort of cliché portrayal of present-day society. The film tells the story of a provincial doctor who needs to take care of an incident involving his daughter, ahead of her Baccalaureate exam, which involves some tough decision-making for what should happen next in his life”.

The film casts Adrian Titieni and Maria Dragus, as protagonists, and Lia Bugnar, Malina Manovici, Vlad Ivanov and Rares Andrici as supporting actors. Cristian Mungiu also wrote the script.

Also in Cannes, Bogdan Mirica’s “Dogs” grabbed the award of the International Federation of Film Critics. Mirica’s debut thriller was premiered worldwide as part of the “Un certain regard” section in Cannes. Cristi Puiu, another acclaimed Romanian filmmaker in Cannes, who in 2005 won the “Un certain regard” section with his film “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”, this year entered the official competition with his latest production, “Sieranevada”, which was well received by the critics. It is the story of a commemoration, director Cristi Puiu said.