Summa cum laude cinema from Romania

Romania is a country not widely known for its cinematic exports. But promising filmmakers and notable movies have emerged from that part of the world in the last two decades. The Romanian New Wave, in fact, began in the early 2000s, known for its minimalist realism, long takes, naturalistic performances, and sharp social critique of post-communist Romania. Gaining international acclaim with films like The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and the Palme d’Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, it became one of Europe’s most vital cinematic voices for its unflinching portraits of moral ambiguity, institutional failure, and personal struggle in a society still marked by its authoritarian past.

Graduation is a more recent offspring of that movement, directed and written by Cristian Mungiu – one of the key figures of the Romanian New Wave cinema. The film follows Romeo Aldea, a respected doctor in a small Transylvanian town, whose primary concern is securing a better future for his daughter, Eliza. Just before Eliza is set to take her final exams and claim a scholarship to study in the UK, she becomes the victim of a traumatic assault. To protect her future and ensure she passes her exams despite her trauma, Romeo finds himself navigating a morally murky world of favors, corruption, and personal compromise. Adrian Titieni stars as Romeo, with Maria Drăguș playing Eliza. Supporting roles include Lia Bugnar as Magda, Romeo’s estranged wife, and Vlad Ivanov as a local official who becomes entangled in Romeo's desperate attempts to fix the situation.

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of Graduation, conducted last week, click here (if you get an error message, simply refresh the page).

Like Green Border – which our CineVerse group explored a few weeks ago – Graduation reminds Westerners that things on our side of the world could always be worse; as depicted in this film, Romania, while no longer communist, is a cesspool of corruption, venality, and ineffective leadership. The filmmakers present their home country as a place where who you know is more important than what you know or do.

The POV is decidedly subjective, consistently from Romeo’s vantage point. The choice to present the narrative through his eyes means that we are often given more clues or hints than facts, but we also have a greater capacity to empathize with his situation and ask ourselves what we would do in his shoes, especially when it comes to his daughter’s predicament.

The directorial choices are interesting. Mungiu’s distinctive visual style, marked by intimate tracking shots, extended takes, and expansive landscapes, feels inseparable from the film’s narrative. The director often allows the camera to linger in broad, spacious compositions. His precise, restrained approach mirrors Romeo’s flawed belief that life can be carefully managed and predicted.

The nighttime scene where Romeo gets off the bus and follows one of the suspects in the police lineup into a bad section of town where we hear a cacophony of threatening noises is bone-chilling in its suspenseful execution and sound design.

Criterion Collection essayist Bilge Ebiri astutely noted: “In the movie’s first half, we usually look out at the world from inside Romeo’s car, as he drives or interacts with others. In the second half, it’s usually Romeo who’s standing outside the vehicle—whether he’s talking to a school administrator to warn him that the cops are on to their grade-fixing scheme, or to Eliza on her boyfriend’s motorbike.”

Many issues go unresolved and questions remain unanswered by the end of the story, including: Was the rapist ever caught? Was Eliza’s boyfriend actually near the crime and guilty of not intervening? Who broke the windows (is it possibly Sondra’s son Matei, who’s perhaps resentful of Romeo’s affair with his mother)? What exactly is Magda’s illness? Did Romeo actually hit and kill a dog with his car? And will Eliza be attending school in England next fall?

An obvious recurring idea explored in Graduation is the consequences of gaming the system. Romeo learns the hard way that attempting to fudge his daughter’s grades by asking favors of a crooked bureaucrat can have serious repercussions, including loss of respect and trust from his daughter and possible criminal indictment by investigating authorities. “Graduation seems more concerned with offering a look at a man whose bubble of entitlement and self-importance is gradually punctured,” Ebiri continues.

The narrative also navigates the inescapability of corruption and bad decisions. Romeo tells his daughter that he and his wife fled communist Romania for the West but later moved back in an attempt to improve their country, a choice he regrets. He warns his child that if she doesn’t take advantage of her opportunity for a better life elsewhere, she’ll be stuck in this country, which is ridden with graft, corruption, and political mismanagement.

Aptly titled, the film examines “graduation” as a cause for celebration and a cautionary tale. “The movie is about the tragic loss of his belief that he can protect his daughter from injury and compromise,” posited film critic Michael Sragow. “It’s also about Eliza’s disillusionment with the rectitude of her father. Father and child do graduate into an adult appreciation of each other. They achieve an understated rapprochement. But it comes after a jolting series of scrapes and crises, and Mungiu offers no assurance that it will last or that Eliza will secure a brighter future.”

Another prominent concept embedded in Graduation is the burden of challenging familial responsibilities. Five women in Romeo’s orbit – including his daughter, wife, mother, mistress, and nurse colleague – depend on him to some extent large or small. Romeo does his best to manage each of these relationships but must relinquish his morals in several circumstances – pulling strings to help his daughter pass her exams and fulfill his dream of achieving a better life outside of Romania; convincing his daughter that it’s permissible to cheat if the end outweighs the means; leading a not so secret philandering double life that brings shame and resentment from his wife and daughter; and engaging in an often transactional relationship with his younger lover, whose wishes and requests he keeps on the backburner. Despite his attempts to fix each of these issues, he commonly makes each situation worse.

The storyline reflects on the notion of inescapable, if not karmic, tragedy, as well. Romeo and his loved ones experience a cascading series of bad events, from sexual assault to broken windows to a senior health emergency to the accidental killing of a dog to a serious police investigation that could ruin his life and his daughter’s future.

At its core, Graduation is also a rumination on family disintegration, as Romeo’s actions lead to the breakup of his marriage, estrangement from his daughter, and resentment from his paramour.

Similar works

• The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) – a bleakly dark, quietly satirical drama that follows an elderly man through a night of bureaucratic indifference in Bucharest’s healthcare system — a foundational piece of the Romanian New Wave
• A Separation (2011) – this Iranian drama similarly explores moral ambiguity, family duty, and ethical dilemmas within a tightly wound, realistic narrative about divorce and social constraints
• The Measure of a Man (2015) – a French social realist film that follows a middle-aged man navigating moral compromise and systemic injustice while trying to keep his job, echoing Graduation’s focus on personal ethics clashing with societal pressures
• Child’s Pose (2013) – another Romanian New Wave film, which centers on a wealthy mother’s attempts to cover up her son’s involvement in a fatal car accident, exploring themes of class privilege, parental control, and institutional corruption
• The White Ribbon (2009) – a chilling, austere drama about a pre-WWI German village where sinister events unfold under the surface of strict social order, examining moral decay and generational consequences
• Leviathan (2014) – a bleak, allegorical portrait of one man’s battle against bureaucratic and ecclesiastical corruption in a small Russian town — with echoes of Graduation’s critique of systemic injustice
• The Return (2003) – an intimate, tension-filled drama about two boys and their estranged father captures themes of authority, masculinity, and familial loyalty in a stark, naturalistic style
• The Class (Entre les Murs) (2008) – a drama set within a Parisian classroom, uses a vérité style to explore generational conflict, institutional failure, and the moral tightropes teachers walk

Other films by Cristian Mungiu

• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
• Beyond the Hills (2012)
• R.M.N. (2022)