Romanian Director Speaking about Glory and Audiences

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has reached international stardom when his second film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, has won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. But the Romanian director has said that reaching a wider audience is more important to him than the glory of awards. However, the Palme d’Or Award is really something, after all!
Cristian Mungiu’s “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”, which is currently showing at the New York Film Festival, is based on the true story of two students from the communist Romania who are trying to arrange an abortion.
But the 39-year-old Romanian director currently hopes to translate his Palme d’Or award from the Cannes Film Festival into a mainstream success in the United States of America too.
“I don’t see myself as an arthouse filmmaker, making films for small theaters and few people.” – Cristian Mungiu has told Reuters in an interview.
While he was pleased to be the first Romanian to win the top award at Cannes, he said, “it is not like I am jumping for joy every day, it doesn’t work like this. I care about awards … but I just want to reach more people who would get something from the story.” Still, the award from Cannes really represents the sharpest way of reaching more and more audiences, isn’t it?
However, the director has welcomed early positive reactions from the U.S. audiences, but on the other hand he does not expect his European success will translate to film awards on this side of the Atlantic.
“It would be a huge bonus for us to be nominated for the Oscars, but it is not necessarily … the kind of cinema that would normally be awarded here.” – has said director Cristian Mungiu.
“4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” is a movie that takes a bleak look at two girls that will be negotiating an abortion during the regime of leader Nicolae Ceausescu, when abortion is illegal.
But Mungiu, who directed and wrote the screenplay, has said that this movies hasn’t been munch about abortion, than about a personal story reflecting the hardships of every day life at the time.
Nicolae Ceausescu was deposed and shot by a firing squad in 1989 after a secret military tribunal found him and his wife guilty of crimes against the state.
“If you have this ability to find a relevant story that is close to you, it is going to be much more complex than if you start writing a piece about communism or abortion or whatever.” – Cristian Mungiu has said..
Other Romanians, including directors Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristi Puiu have had success in recent years, but Mungiu’s win set off the biggest celebration yet among Romanians.
“They felt the joy as if we won something in football, in sport,” he said. “It showed how much this (film) did for the image of the country in a way.”
He hopes a series of films he is producing from the same communist era would be seen by just as many people worldwide.
“I can’t compete with Spiderman 3 and it is OK they will go and see that film, but there are people who want to see a film like mine too.”

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