
Cristian Mungiu
Directing
Biography
Cristian Mungiu (Romanian: [kristiˈan munˈd͡ʒi.u]; born 27 April 1968; Iași) is a Romanian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for his film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", which he wrote and directed. He has also won the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Director, at the 2012 and 2016 Cannes Film Festivals, for his films "Beyond the Hills" and "Graduation". After studying English literature at the University of Iaşi, he worked for a few years as a teacher and as a journalist. After that, he enrolled at the University of Film in Bucharest to study film directing. After graduating in 1998, Mungiu made several short films. In 2002, he debuted with his first feature film, Occident. Occident enjoyed critical success, winning prizes in several film festivals and being featured in Director’s Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. In 2007 Mungiu wrote and directed his second feature, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The film was received enthusiastically, attracting critical praise and being selected in the official competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where it eventually won the coveted Palme d'Or for feature film, marking the first time that prize was awarded to a Romanian filmmaker. Mungiu has said that early Miloš Forman and Robert Altman are important filmmakers who influenced him. He also respects the realism of Bicycle Thieves. Mungiu is the brother of political analyst Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.
Known For

After the deaths of Mihai's parents, Mihai and Lisbeth Gheorghiu leave everything behind and move with their children to a remote village in Norway, hoping to rebuild their lives near Lisbeth's family. There, they grow close to their neighbors, the Halbergs, whose warmth offers the promise of a fresh start. But the fragile peace begins to unravel when the Gheorghius' young daughter, Elia, arrives at school covered in bruises.
Fjord

Oregon, 1851. Hermann Kermit Warm, a chemist and aspiring gold prospector, keeps a profitable secret that the Commodore wants to know, so he sends the Sisters brothers, two notorious assassins, to capture him on his way to California.
The Sisters Brothers

Two college roommates have 24 hours to make the ultimate choice as they finalize arrangements for a black market abortion.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Reliable 30-something Rux’s plans to leave Bucharest to join her long-distance lover in LA are upended when her boss assigns her to his wife’s mayoral race and pairs her with a know-it-all colleague.
Ruxx

Beowulf is a wanderer who learns about a man-eating creature called Grendel, which comes in the night to devour warriors trapped at the Outpost. The Outpost is ruled by Hrothgar. He has a daughter, whose husband may have been murdered by the Outpost's master of arms.
Beowulf

In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.
Train of Life

After his daughter is assaulted and left with an injury that may jeopardize her opportunity to study in the UK, a Romanian doctor decides to do whatever it takes to secure her future.
Graduation

Alina returns to Romania from Germany, hoping to bring Voichita—the only person in the world she loves and was loved by—back with her. But Voichita has found God, and God is the hardest lover of all to best.
Beyond the Hills

After two hapless stoplight technicians make an offhand joke about an imaginary heist, everyone in their small Romanian town suddenly wants a piece of the pie – forcing the pair to make a decision that could change their lives forever.
Tuff Money

A few days before Christmas, having quit his job in Germany, Matthias returns to his Transylvanian village. He wishes to involve himself more in the education of his son, Rudi, left for too long in the care of his mother, Ana, and to rid him of the unresolved fears that have gripped him. He’s also eager to see his ex-lover Csilla and preoccupied about his old father, Otto. When a few new workers are hired at the small factory that Csilla manages, the peace of the community is disturbed, underlying fears grip the adults, and frustrations, conflicts and passions erupt through the thin sliver of apparent understanding and calm.
R.M.N.

Following a cyber attack on a German bank, an investigator teams with local authorities and an elite hacker to track the suspects.
Hackerville

Mircea, former Intelligence officer, finds out that his son from has gone missing in the mountains. He travels there to find him. After days of searches, Mircea put his own rescue team together, leading to conflict with the local squad.
The Father Who Moves Mountains

In 1982, Wim Wenders asked 16 of his fellow directors to speak on the future of cinema, resulting in the film Room 666. Now, 40 years later, in Cannes, director Lubna Playoust asks Wim Wenders himself and a new generation of filmmakers (James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi, Alice Rohrwacher and more) the same question: “is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?”
Room 999

Composed of six unconventional vignettes, each one dealing with the late communist period in Romania, a narrative is told through its urban myths from the perspective of ordinary people. The title refers to the alluded "Golden Age" of the last 15 years of Ceaușescu's regime.
Tales from the Golden Age

While working in the US on a temporary visa as a caretaker, Mara, a 30 year-old single mother from Romania, marries Daniel, an American. After the arrival of her son Dragos, everything seems to have fallen perfectly into place. When the process of getting a green card veers unexpectedly off course, however, Mara is faced with abuses of power on every level and forced to answer a dark question about herself – how far would you go to get what you want?
Lemonade

Three overlapping stories take place over the course of a week in Bucharest, with characters whose life paths intersect and overlap; often independently of their intentions to emmigrate from Romania, or to stay behind.
Occident

Cielo is a mother whose teenage daughter is kidnapped in Northern Mexico. When the authorities offer no support in the search, Cielo takes matters into her own hands and transforms from housewife into a vengeful militant.
La Civil

A humble Romanian actor in his 40's, hardly surviving between a complicated part in a musical, a depressed wife, and the obsession of an imminent, devastating earthquake, becomes the victim of his manipulative father.
6.9 on the Richter Scale

A young teenager wins a contest for a "Medieval Adventure" from a soda company. The winners, plus a film crew from the soda company arrive at the castle for the adventure. During the night, a spell cast over 600 years prior brings the castle and all the people in it back to 1383. The evil Lord Raykin plans on retrying to take the castle. It is up to the group to stop him, and thereby return to the 20th century. They enlist the help of the former court magician, Percival, to help them.
Teen Knight

Natalia and Ginel leave their small Romanian Danube village to work abroad in Rotterdam. One evening, when she is assaulted after meeting a local, Natalia asks Ita, a friend from home turned into a crook, to help her.