Graduation
International Arthouse
•
2h 7m
Directed by Cristian Mungiu | 127 mins | 2016
Nine years after his Palme d’Or-winning breakout—the abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"—"Graduation" landed Cristian Mungiu his third major award at Cannes, this time for best director. He returns to the murky backwaters of institutional corruption, following high schooler Eliza (Maria-Victoria Drăguș) as she undertakes her final exams. But after a brutal attack leaves her injured and throws her overseas college scholarship into danger, her father, a doctor (Adrian Titieni), must consider less-than-scrupulous methods to secure her future—in a tragic face-off between morality and desperation.
Up Next in International Arthouse
-
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Directed by Cristi Puiu | 147 mins | 2005
Responsible more than any other film for establishing Romanian film as an international force, Puiu’s second feature is a scabrous satire of broken institutions that begins with the ailing elderly Mr. Lazarescu calling an ambulance, then follows him on an... -
A White, White Day
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason | 109 mins | 2019
Hlynur Pálmason’s second film opens with the Icelandic proverb that gives "A White, White Day" its title: “On such days when everything is white, and there is no longer any difference between the earth and the sky, then the dead can talk to us who are... -
Winter Brothers
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason | 93 min | 2017
Winner of four awards at its Locarno premiere, Hlynur Pálmason’s debut feature introduces the traits that would come to define his future work (notably, the 2022 western "Godland")—fertile interrogations of masculinity and its entailing savagery unfoldi...
