Cannes Director Spotlight: Cristian Mungiu

Cristian Mungiu
New Film: Beyond the Hills
Country: Romania
Age: 44
Best Known for: The Palme-winning abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Cannes History
The aforementioned 4 Months was one of Cannes' most widely admired titles over the past decade—maybe even longer. Shockingly, it was Mungiu's first film in Competition. His second is this year's Beyond the Hills. His only other film, 2002's Occident, was featured in the Director's Fortnight.

His Resume
Mungiu is one of the Competition's youngest and most inexperienced filmmakers, despite his already impressive Cannes resume. Occident, about the westward migration of twentysomething Romanians, came out in 2002 to positive reviews, but relatively muted buzz. 4 Months, then, was a major coming out party. Not only is it a career-defining film for Mungiu, and most of the others involved, it's also one of the brightest stars of the Romanian New Wave.

Mungiu On-Demand
Hulu Plus: N/A
iTunes: N/A
Netflix Instant: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days
Vudu: N/A

Beyond the Hills
"A drama centered on the friendship between two young women who grew up in the same orphanage; one has found refuge at a convent in Romania and refuses to leave with her friend, who now lives in Germany." —IMDb

Mungiu has written all of his films, including Beyond the Hills, and he's not the only behind-the-camera constant. Cinematographer Oleg Mutu (also Sergei Loznitsa's DP for In the Fog) returns after lensing 4 Months. But Mircea Olteanu—who's editing the film and the sound—is a newcomer to both Mungiu and feature films, in general.

The film will almost certainly be understated and bleak. That is the Romanian New Wave, after all. But if the tone of 4 Months and the Beyond the Hills still embedded below are any indication, this might be one of the festival's biggest downers. Only a fool, however, would assume "downer", at least in this case, was a bad thing. The bleaker, the more "Romanian" (for lack of a better word) this one is, the better its Palme chances might be.