What movie are you excited about this week, Bor?
‘RMN by Christian Mungiu, who has never made a bad movie. He is one of the most important Romanian directors. Volkskrantreaders will mostly know him from the film 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, about two young women, one of whom has an unwanted pregnancy. They are trying to arrange an illegal abortion in Romania, which is still communist. A modern classic, which won a Golden Palm.
‘Mungiu’s latest movie RMN (drama, 127 min., ★★★★☆) is set in Transylvania, a place we know from the vampires. They do not appear in this film, but we do see an enormous variety of population groups. Transylvania is a region wedged into Romania, which is simultaneously populated by Hungarians, Romanians, Germans and Roma. There, in that place, Mungiu plans a story about xenophobia, which is based on a true history.
‘A local bakery factory in a mountain village is experiencing a shortage of staff, many of the local men have gone to work in Germany and the Netherlands. That is why workers are flown in from Sri Lanka. This leads to a popular uprising among the villagers: it is not the intention that workers from abroad come to their village. Nobody wants to eat bread from the bakery factory anymore, the workers flown in have to be accommodated in other villages. Mungiu shows how tribal people still are in 2022, how much they want to belong to a group and see other people as enemies or intruders.
‘Between the main lines, Mungiu outlines the story of a number of those villagers. Matthias is one of them. He is a Romanian who worked in Germany but returns when his son suddenly stops talking after seeing something nasty or horrible in the woods. Then Matthias’ marriage is also in ruins and he starts a relationship with his childhood sweetheart again, who works in that bread factory. In this way, the social environment of Matthias is sucked into the conflict that is going on among the population.
‘Very clever is a seventeen-minute scene, filmed uninterruptedly from one point of view. Mungiu shows a meeting of that entire village in the village center, where a large part of the residents tell the mayor why they don’t want those strangers. It is as if you point the camera at a random neighborhood center, and yet the director manages to turn it into a moving painting. The characters from the film stand between two hundred extras and something is happening everywhere you look. But it never becomes a cacophony of screaming people, it feels like you could have been there yourself. Yes, impressive.’
And then you saw ballet drama Piece of My Heart. What did you like about it?
‘You know what it is, if you want to make a ballet or dance film, you have roughly two choices: you let actors dance or dancers act. Dana Nechushtan, known for series like Dutch Hope and Dunya & Desie, has deliberately chosen real dancers. Then you might compromise on acting, but Nechushtan proves that this is possible thanks to her strong directing work. And that dance, those bodies, you can’t imitate that.
‘The two main characters Olga and Irma are played by Roos Englebert and Elaine Meijerink. They are fresh from the classical ballet training of the Conservatory in The Hague. That is such added value; all performances, rehearsals, details, you feel it right. Both also have faces that were made for the film, you keep looking at them.
‘Piece of My Heart (drama, 114 min., ★★★☆☆) is a kind of fairy tale, a classic story about someone who rises to the top and can’t handle the immense pressure. Olga and Irma are competitors, but also friends. One of the two becomes the star, the other proves to be a good friend and tries to assist her where possible. It’s also a wonderful movie. For 45 minutes I thought: I can go here with my 13-year-old daughter. But then I saw it differently, it’s also pretty bad at times. By the way, director Nechushtan said: your daughter can handle more than you think, Bor.’
And these films are also worth a visit to the cinema:
The road movie Bones and All (romantic horror, 131 min., ★★★☆☆) about two cannibalistic teenagers has tender moments, but blood and guts also gush across the screen.
The gripping Plus que jamais (drama, 123 min., ★★★★☆) is about the will to live and the power to die. Leading actress Vicky Krieps is without a doubt one of the best actresses of the moment.