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.