Cristian Mungiu

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Cristian Mungiu at the premiere of his film Beyond the Hills in Cannes (2012)

Cristian Mungiu (born April 27, 1968 in Iași ) is a Romanian film director , screenwriter and film producer . He became known to a wide audience for his feature film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the European Film Prize.

Life

Cristian Mungiu was born in 1968 in Iași, in northeast Romania. The doctor's son studied English literature at the university in his hometown . Mungiu then worked for several years as a teacher, journalist and radio presenter before he decided to study film studies at the University of Theater and Film in Bucharest . He completed his film studies in 1998. In the same year he was the first assistant director to work on the Canadian adventure film Teen Knight, shot in Romania , which was soon followed by the post of second assistant director on Radu Mihăileanu's multi-award-winning world war drama Train of Life (1998).

Two years later, Mungiu tried his hand at his first short films as a film director , including Zapping , Nici o întâmplare and Corul pompierilor , for which he also wrote the scripts, and worked in the advertising industry. His first success as a filmmaker paved him in 2002 with his first feature film Occident , a social study between comedy and drama about the future hopes of young people in post-communist Romania. The Variety pointed to the inconspicuous black humor in the first half of the film, which holds the individual storylines together and gives a historical perspective, and praised Occident for its robust acting ensemble of theater and screen actors.

The film was featured in the Quinzaine des Realisateurs series at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002, won awards at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and a year later at the International du Films d'Amour Festival in Mons, Belgium . Followed in 2005 with Lost and Found one on the theme "Generation" acting compilation film short films coming young directors from Eastern Europe to the Cristian Mungiu, at the invitation of the German Federal Cultural Foundation , the episode Turkey Girl (dt Title.: The girl and the turkey ) contributed . Here, the filmmaker focused on a young Romanian woman who tried to finance her mother's expensive operation in Bucharest by moving her beloved turkey, among other things.

Mungiu in 2007

Cristian Mungiu, who has his own production company with Bucharest Mobra Films, celebrated his breakthrough as a film director in 2007 with his second feature film 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile (German: 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days ). Against the background of the Ceaușescu regime in 1987, the work shows the story of two Romanian students (played by Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu ) who are confronted with the problem of an unwanted pregnancy. 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile had its world premiere in 2007 at the 60th Cannes Film Festival , where the film was represented in the competition for the Palme d' Or. Mungiu won the FIPRESCI Prize of the international film critics for the drama rated by German film critics as “stomach-shaking”, “oppressive”, “strong” and “great cast”, part of a planned series entitled “Stories from the Golden Age” as the first Romanian film director the Golden Palm for the best film of the festival. A few months later, Mungius Film was selected as the official Romanian entry for the nomination for the best non-English language film at the 2008 Academy Awards and won the 2007 European Film Prize in the categories of film and directing.

During the evaluation of 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days in Romania, Cristian Mungiu was confronted with the problem of the small number of cinemas. Thereupon he decided to sell his film himself with projection equipment borrowed from Germany. Through private donations, he financed a caravan that drove to the larger cities of Romania, where there were no longer any movie theaters.

In 2009 Mungiu looked back on the Ceaușescu years again with the comedy Amintiri din Epoca de Aur (German: "Stories from the Golden Age" ) . The film, which was staged with four other directors, premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in 2009, where it received an invitation to the sub-section Un Certain Regard . “The first Romanian films about communism that were made immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall were very bad - the characters were nothing more than mouthpieces for the views of their directors. Today we make films about that era with a lot less anger. The humor helped the Romanians get through this time, so we thought humor is also a possible way of looking back, ” said Mungiu. In 2010, he worked on the script for Bogdan George Apetris' feature film Periferic .

Five years after the success of 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days , Mungiu completed another feature film project in 2012 with Jenseits der Hügel (English-language festival title: Beyond the Hills ) as the sole director and screenwriter. The work, co-produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne , tells the story of two women who grew up in an orphanage in Romania. While one travels to Germany, the other decides to live in an Orthodox convent in her home country. After returning to Romania, the woman tries to persuade her friend to move to Germany, but has to defend herself against the priesthood and is suspected of being possessed . Mungiu was inspired by the non-fiction books of the Romanian author Tatiana Niculescu Bran for his script . Beyond the Hills earned him his second invitation to the competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 , where he received the Screenplay Award, while the two film debutantes Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan were honored with the Acting Award. In the same year he was nominated for the European Film Award for best screenwriter.

In 2013 he was appointed to the competition jury of the 66th Cannes International Film Festival .

In 2016, Mungiu received his third invitation to compete at the 69th Cannes International Film Festival for Bacalaureat , where he won the directing award. A year later he was selected as the jury president for the short film competition and the Cinéfondation series of the 70th Cannes Film Festival .

Filmography

Film director

  • 2000: Zapping (short film)
  • 2000: Nici o întâmplare (short film)
  • 2000: Corul pompierilor (short film)
  • 2002: Occident (Occident)
  • 2005: Lost and Found (TV series, episode Turkey Girl )
  • 2007: 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile)
  • 2009: Amintiri din Epoca de Aur
  • 2012: Beyond the Hills ( După dealuri )
  • 2016: Bacalaureate

Screenwriter

  • 2000: Zapping (short film)
  • 2000: Nici o întâmplare (short film)
  • 2000: Corul pompierilor (short film)
  • 2002: Occident (Occident)
  • 2005: Lost and Found (TV series, episode Turkey Girl )
  • 2007: 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile)
  • 2009: Amintiri din Epoca de Aur
  • 2012: Beyond the Hills ( După dealuri )
  • 2016: Bacalaureate

film producer

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kappert, Ines: The skillful storyteller . In: the daily newspaper , May 29, 2007, Topics of the Day, p. 2
  2. ↑ a b c Cristian Mungiu, surprising winner of the Cannes Film Festival . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 29, 2007, opinion page, p. 4
  3. ↑ Young, Deborah: Occident . In: Daily Variety, June 7, 2002, Section, p. 28
  4. ↑ Lueken, Verena: Cristian Mungiu: the winner of the Golden Palm ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at faz.net  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.faz.net
  5. ^ Film review for 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile at faz.net
  6. ^ Film review for 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile at welt.de
  7. ↑ Film portrait of 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days and interview with the director  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at epd-film.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.epd-film.de  
  8. ↑ What's the matter with the Hungarians? . In: Die Welt , December 29, 2009, p. 25
  9. ↑ Beyond the Hills at timeout.com, accessed on 22 April 2012 found.
personal data
SURNAME Mungiu, Cristian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian film director, screenwriter and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Iași , Romania