Rating: NR | Runtime: 125 minutes
Release Date: June 3rd, 2022 (Romania) / April 7th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Voodoo Films / IFC Films
Director(s): Cristian Mungiu
Writer(s): Cristian Mungiu

Stay away from wild animals when you’re unarmed.

Much like Matthias’ (Marin Grigore) father, you wouldn’t know his Transylvanian hometown was ill. While he can take Papa Otto to the hospital and get a brain scan, however, it’s not so easy to look under the surface of a place—especially not for those entrenched within. We as outsiders know. We can look at the attitudes and strife and see that this is an unhappy world. Most of its population has gone abroad for work. Those who’ve stayed can barely afford to exist in low paying jobs, if they’re working at all. Everything seems to be falling victim to choice regardless of age due to a scarcity of time and energy. Choir or orchestra? Minimum wage or exile? Die working or lose everything? And the lack of concrete answers only makes matters worse since the unfortunate human drive for self-preservation demands malice towards those we perceive as threats.

It starts with Matthias going on the run after head-butting his German employer for calling him a “Gypsy”. The character’s anger doesn’t stem from it being a racial slur, though. Matthias has been raised to hate Romani too being born in a place with its Hungarian and Romanian population always aligning to driving them out despite agree on little else. He therefore lashes out with a knee-jerk impulse to remind a world that sees him as the “other” that he’s actually one of the “good ones” (although acts of violence, justified or not, do him no favors in terms of changing minds). That’s who he is, though. A toxically masculine man’s man who thinks being a father means teaching his young, sensitive son how to survive an apocalypse on his own. Violence is a tool. Violence asserts authority.

You won’t then be surprised by what he witnesses upon returning home. An old flame (Judith State’s Csilla) has been helping the owner of the bakery she runs to hire foreign employees to affordably raise their payroll to a point where they can apply for increased EU member aid. She tried hiring locals, but the numbers only work if she offers minimum wage. And since their minimum wage is far less than the salaries farther west in Europe, residents would rather leave. The relativity of it all, however, means their minimum wage is conversely higher than that of countries farther east. So, in come two Sri Lankans. Kind and hard-working men who prove to their coworkers and Csilla that they’re a boon to the community. With the Romani still fresh on everyone’s minds, though, the town sees them as invaders. The first wave of disease-ridden, godless monsters come to take control.

Matthias should be someone who can see through this fear-driven lie. He was disrespected in Germany. He knows what it is to be unwanted despite only looking to make a living. And yet the parallel is willfully ignored. Suddenly he has power again. Is it worth relinquishing that superiority with the townsfolk to have Csilla’s back? No. He can’t look like a coward. Just like he won’t let his son be afraid of his Boogeyman despite everyone around him being afraid theirs. Because there’s no difference. The anxiety the boy feels walking alone through the forest is the same as that which the community feels when spouting lies about newcomers being dirty with disease. Saying you don’t have a problem with them as long as they stay in their country, while actively sending yourself to other countries is textbook xenophobic fearmongering.

R.M.N. writer/director Cristian Mungiu eases us into this reality with quiet contrasts before letting sparks turn into an inferno. The film is calling out everyone, the capitalistic system they’re gaming, and crutches like religion that they wielded to support their bigotry. It does so through underlying themes and overt dialogue once a long single-take town hall exposes the hypocrisy and exploitation running rampant on both sides of the argument. You can’t demand EU support and refuse immigrants. You can’t say you did all you could to hire locals without offering a living wage. You can’t call a human being an animal when you’re the one threatening to kill him/her. It’s a tense affair that ultimately puts Matthias in the middle to finally pick a side, culminating in an unforgettable night-time conclusion that brings everything full circle to reveal the thing we truly fear is us. Our mistakes. Our violent rage. Our insignificance.

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Marin Grigore as “Mattias,” Judith Slate as “Csilla,” and Orsolya Moldován as “Mrs. Dénes” in Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” Courtesy of Mobra Films. An IFC Films Release.