Graduation, from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days), could be the filmmaker’s best effort yet. Romeo (Adrian Titieni) is an accomplished middle-aged doctor living with his family in a tumbledown housing project somewhere outside the bleak university town of Cluj-Napoca in the Transylvanian hills. His 18-year-old daughter has achieved the Romanian Dream: getting the hell out of Romania on a U.K. student visa. But on the day of her final exams, she’s attacked and badly injured, which jeopardizes her ability to complete her assessments, and thus endangers her future. Romeo knows that with his influence there are plenty of paths off the straight and narrow that he can take to save his daughter’s dream, but will he risk his professional reputation to do this? As usual, Mungiu works wonders with his own brand of Eastern European kitchen sink drama, not so much passing judgment on Romeo’s moral choices as providing just enough information to make the audience his characters’ real judge and jury. His depiction of the Ceauşescu generation’s corruption being passed down like an unwanted heirloom to their children in a post-Communist amoral universe is tough but also compassionate. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a 2016 Cannes press conference (42 min.), an interview with director Cristian Mungiu (30 min.), deleted scenes (9 min.), and an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a powerful and insightful foreign drama.] (M. Sandlin)
Graduation
Criterion, 127 min., in Romanian w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.99, Blu-ray: $39.99 Volume 33, Issue 4
Graduation
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