R.M.N. is a 2022 drama film produced, written and directed by Cristian Mungiu. Set in a multi-ethnic village in Transylvania during the 2019–20 holiday season, it is based on the 2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident. It follows Matthias, a man who returns from Germany, and his ex-lover Csilla, who works in the village. Mungiu named the film after the Romanian acronym for nuclear magnetic resonance, as the film is "an investigation of the brain, a brain scan trying to detect things below the surface".
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It received critical acclaim, with praise towards Mungiu's direction and screenplay. It was theatrically released in Romania by Voodoo Films on 3 June.
Mungiu wrote the screenplay in the spring of 2021. Filming took place from November 2021 to January 2022 in Rimetea and other villages across Transylvania.
Release
The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in the main competition. In May 2022, IFC Films acquired the North American rights ahead of the premiere, and released it in US theaters on April 28, 2023.
It grossed $740k in its worldwide theatrical run. France represented more than 50% of the global total, with a $372k total run in French cinemas.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 69 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10.The website's consensus reads: "R.M.N.'s spare, elegant approach lends a deceptively cool surface to its caustic take on cultural divisions."Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
It was awarded the Golden Tower for Best Film at the 2022 European Film Festival Palić and received a Special Mention from the Press Jury of the 2022 CinEast Film Festival in Luxembourg.
