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Romanian director wants audiences, not awards

03.10.2007

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Romanian director Cristian Mungiu found international stardom when his second film won the top prize at Cannes this year, but he says reaching a wider audience is more important to him than the glory of awards.
Mungiu's "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days," which is showing at the New York Film Festival, is based on a true story of two students in communist Romania trying to arrange an abortion.
But the 39-year-old hopes to translate his Palme d'Or win at Cannes into mainstream U.S. success.
"I don't see myself as an arthouse filmmaker, making films for small theaters and few people," he told Reuters in an interview.
While he was pleased to be the first Romanian to win the top award at Cannes, he said, "it is not like I am jumping for joy every day, it doesn't work like this. I care about awards ... but I just want to reach more people who would get something from the story."
The director welcomed early positive reactions from U.S. audiences but does not expect his European success will translate to film awards on this side of the Atlantic.
"It would be a huge bonus for us to be nominated for the Oscars, but it is not necessarily ... the kind of cinema that would normally be awarded here," he said.
Mungiu's film takes a bleak look at two girls negotiating an abortion during the regime of leader Nicolae Ceausescu when abortion was illegal.
But Mungiu, who directed and wrote the screenplay, said the film was less about abortion than a personal story reflecting the hardships of every day life at the time.
Ceausescu was deposed and shot by a firing squad in 1989 after a secret military tribunal found him and his wife guilty of crimes against the state.
"If you have this ability to find a relevant story that is close to you, it is going to be much more complex than if you start writing a piece about communism or abortion or whatever," he said.
Other Romanians, including directors Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristi Puiu have had success in recent years, but Mungiu's win set off the biggest celebration yet among Romanians.
"They felt the joy as if we won something in football, in sport," he said. "It showed how much this (film) did for the image of the country in a way."
He hoped a series of films he is producing from the same communist era would be seen by just as many people worldwide.
"I can't compete with Spiderman 3 and it is OK they will go and see that film, but there are people who want to see a film like mine too."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0333601320071003?sp=true

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