BACALAUREAT/GRADUATION
Romania, 2016, 127 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Christian Mungiu.
Christian Mungiu is one of the most distinguished of the new wave of Romanian directors in the first decades of the 21st century. His 4 weeks, 3 months, 2 days won the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. He followed this with his collection of short stories, Tales from the Golden Age and then the film about exorcism in Romanian Orthodox situation in Beyond the Hills.
This time he goes to a country town in Romania, showing the surfaces of families and the depths within the families, a father who has high expectations of his daughter and her scholarship to England, the daughter interested in study but more in a relationship, the father and his relationship with his emotionally fragile wife and his conducting an affair.
While all this can be covered by the seeming respectability, when the difficulties surface, they have all kinds of repercussions for the people concerned.
This is a very strong drama, very well written and well performed – and, while it is Romanian in its focus, it has universal themes.
1. Romanian film, the prestige of the director and his career? The focus on situations and characters, interactions and close-ups?
2. The setting in western Romania, Transylvania and the Carpathian mountains? The city, the ageing part of the city, building sites, apartments, streets, the school, police headquarters, hospital? The ordinary life in Romania? The musical score?
3. The title, Eliza and her studies, her age, clever, the possibility of going to the UK, psychology, the prospect of a scholarship? Her mixed attitude about leaving or staying? The relationship with Marius, the lessons on the bike, the sexual relationship with him? At home, her mother and her frailty, the bond between them? The Father, his concern, plans, hopes, reflecting on his own past, an opportunity for the? Visiting, the tests? And the men repeating the dialogue? Pressures from her father? The separation of her parents? Knowing her father was having an affair? The influence of her father, his manipulation of the situation? Her reaction? Going to the teacher’s house, her grandmother’s collapse, dealing with it? Her interactions with Marius, not coming home? The graduation ceremony, reconciliation with her father?
4. The father as the main focus of the film, his age, appearance, bulky, seeing him at home, the stone through the window, his reaction, going out to search? His sick wife, the estrangement? Driving Eliza, expressing his hopes, talking, dropping her off? Going to visit Sandra, treating her in the past, at the school as an English teacher and the effect on Eliza? Her son, concerned about him? The reaction to Eliza in hospital? The doctors and the staff in hospital, their interactions? Magda coming to the hospital? The father concerned about his daughter sitting the exams, wearing the cast? His intervening?
5. His interventions, appropriate and inappropriate? His honourable values? Taking the last of the exam, the confrontation with the guard, discussions with the professor, arguing, the rules and their interpretation? Discussions with the doctor? With the police? The friendship with the police, formalities and informalities? The role of the deputy mayor, the past, the bonds, his taking bribes, needing surgery? The father himself? The investigators coming to talk with him?
6. Magda, her health, the work in the library, her concerns, the estrangement? Asking her husband to leave, not to come to the house without notice, giving up the key? The past, their lives? His affair with Sandra and his wife knowing?
7. The visit to his mother, the bond between them? Her collapse, treating her?
8. The police, the CCTV about the attack on Eliza, his wanting a photo printed out, studying it, confronting Marius, the conversation, his accusations, Marius’s reactions?
9. The lineup, Eliza going, the four men repeating the words of the attack, the effect on Eliza? The attack, the repercussions, going to hospital, with the police, the interviews, statements,
10. The comments about the attack, it’s not being a rape – and the man coming for repairs and his saying a relation was raped? The father explaining it was molestation?On the bus, thinking he had sighted the criminal, pursuing him, not finding him?
11. The stones in the window twice – and the meaning?
12. His staying by himself, the police and the talk, his involvement, the investigation? His conscience for him – and Eliza graduating at the end?
