The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Show reviews
    • Interviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
  • Music
    • Live music
    • Album reviews
    • Interviews
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
    • Fringe
    • Vault Festival
    • Interviews
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Interviews
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join the team
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Film festivals Cannes Film Festival 2022

RMN

Cannes Film Festival 2022: RMN | Review
24th May 2022
Avatar photo
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
24 May 2022

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

RMN

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

For the first minutes of RMN, Matthias (Marin Grigore) works in a slaughterhouse in Germany. His temper puts a sudden end to his employment and he returns to his family, who live in a village in Transylvania. The town is home to Romanians of multiple ethnicities (among them Hungarians, Germans), but low wages force many citizens to choose to move away and work abroad.

In order to qualify for EU funding, the local bakehouse needs to employ a certain number of people. Despite their best efforts, none of the residents want the advertised job. Even his past with the bakery’s manager, Csilla (Judith State), can’t convince Matthias to take the position. When the company hires a group of workers from Sri Lanka, the villagers start sharpening their pitchforks.

This multilingual production is screening in Cannes’s main competition, where, in 2007, director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days. 

The breathtaking nature at the heart of the film’s cinematography adds subtle nuance to the storyline as it exposes the villagers’ reluctance to even share this space with the inhabitants that came before them: the native foxes and bears. Xenophobia and hate rarely stick to one target.

RMN is not an easy watch. The subject matter paired with the slow pace and, for non-native speakers, at times confusing language debate (“Speak in Romanian!” is a recurring demand) require the audience’s full concentration at all times. There is embellishment to Matthias’s character that feel superfluous, as viewers will grasp his patriarchal mindset from the first time he aggressively orders his wife not to sissify their son. Mungiu’s objective to call attention to the xenophobic tendencies in his country is too important to get lost in the protagonist’s own problematic ramblings. If the runtime had been cut down from its current 125 minutes to a more digestible 100, RMN would likely be a more accessible experience.

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

RMN does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.

Watch a clip from RMN here:

Related Itemscannes film festivalfilm festivalreview

More in Cannes

Hypnotic

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Perfect Days

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Close Your Eyes (Cerrar los Ojos)

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Kennedy

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Pot-au-Feu (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Fallen Leaves

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“It felt natural to show the life that all women live”: Maxime Rappaz and Jeanne Balibar on Let Me Go

Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Mother of All Lies

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

RMN

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eileen
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Candy Cane Lane
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Willie J Healey at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “It’s super important to put attention to childhood, it shapes who children become”: Lila Avilés on Tótem at the Belfast Film Festival
    Culture
  • Candy Cane Lane
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Willie J Healey at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Eileen
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wish
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Willie J Healey at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Wish
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen at Bush Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
  • Contact us
  • Join the team
  • Subscribe to the mailing list
  • Support us
  • Writing for The Upcoming

Copyright © 2011-2023 FL Media