R.M.N. (2022)

Well, I've got a new favorite Romanian Christmas movie. And before you roll your eyes, let me remind you that actually means something - for whatever reason the nation has produced some extremely good holiday films. I've got no idea what else exists that hasn't gotten attention over here, of course, but the three that made their way to the States all packed a punch. Also, all three have featured faltering romantic partnerships as plot elements - no idea what's up with that trend, either. That's about where comparisons end between R.M.N. and the other two, however. Actually, comparisons should probably end a bit earlier, as even that's a tenuous connection: the male lead in R.M.N. has a very different relationship with both his wife and mistress than those presented in the films I linked to.

Before we get into the actual story, I do want to caution this is a movie best experienced spoiler-free, and - in case that whole "new favorite Romanian Christmas movie" thing wasn't clear enough - R.M.N. is absolutely a film I'd recommend... with a couple caveats.

The caveats in this case aren't because the movie does anything wrong; it's just that R.M.N. can get a bit heavy, particularly right now. The movie delves honestly into culture and politics in a rural Romanian village, and it turns out said cultural and political climate is pretty dang similar to that of the United States. Because of this, the issues being explored and the behavior of the majority of the villagers is going to be very recognizable to those of us watching in the U.S., despite being set on the other side of the world.

That's a longwinded way of warning anyone understandably exhausted of coverage of rightwing politicians and their supporters that this might be a lot to take in. To be clear, the movie's politics and heart are in the right places - this comes out pretty firmly against xenophobia, conservatism, and centrism - but I wouldn't describe the experience of watching it realistically depicted as pleasant. If you're looking for a lighthearted, escapist holiday film, this isn't what you want to watch, particularly at this moment in history. On the other hand, if you're willing to engage with an intelligent, honest look at the way racism festers like a disease, you should stop reading now before I spoil the hell out of it.

The movie ultimately has two main characters, but it's Matthias we're following through most of the first half. A butcher by trade, he starts the movie working at a meat packing plant in Germany, though he's not there long. When a supervisor insults him with an ethnic slur, Matthias assaults him and takes off, effectively quitting. He flees the country and returns to his home, where the rest of the movie is set.

As you probably guessed from the fact I'm reviewing it here, he arrives just before Christmas, and the rest of the film takes place during the holiday season, with the end occurring on or around Epiphany. From a plot standpoint, this is entirely superfluous - in fact the events the movie is loosely inspired by occurred about a month later - but there are some thematic reasons we'll get to in a bit.

Matthias is married, but it's not a happy marriage. She's aware he's having an affair with a manager of a local industrial bakery and doesn't appear bothered by the fact. If anything, she seems more annoyed by his sudden reappearance. Likewise, Matthias doesn't seem to care much for Ana, though he's not presently violent towards her. I say presently, because the movie all but tells us he used to be physically abusive, and at one point he threatens to kill her in response to her saying she's considering taking their son and leaving. Despite this, he does seem to care about her wellbeing.

Let's talk about their kid, Rudi, who's traumatized at the start of the movie after seeing something frightening in the woods. It scares him to the point he refuses to speak for most of the film - we don't learn what it is until nearly the end, when he reveals to his mother that he saw a man hanging in the forest. We'll get to that.

Matthias's father has some sort of brain tumor, which is slowly killing him. Matthias takes him to the hospital, where he's scanned, and he spends some time going through the images one by one. I should probably note that this is itself a metaphor for the movie as a whole, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

That's what's up with Matthias; now let's talk about his mistress, the movie's other POV character, Csilla. The bakery she works for is attempting to qualify for a subsidy, but in order to do so requires more staff. They only pay minimum wage, and are therefore unable to find anyone locally, so they bring in foreign workers from Sri Lanka.

The local populace doesn't respond well. Online hate groups form, and from there it escalates to death threats and even an attack on the home where the workers are staying. By now, Csilla both feels responsible for the workers and cares a great deal about them. She protects them, placing herself in potential danger to do so. If the movie has a character who comes off as heroic, it's her.

Because, despite his macho exterior, it's certainly not Matthias, who tries to avoid taking sides. He's not without merit, but his refusal to do the right thing - or even acknowledge right from wrong - is portrayed as a fundamental character flaw, as is his fixation with outdated notions of masculinity. He genuinely seems to care about his son and spends the movie trying to help the child, but his attempts to turn the boy into more of a man fail consistently. It's not until his boy sees his father in a moment of weakness that he speaks to him, telling his father he loves him, words Matthias has trouble saying throughout the movie.

That moment of weakness comes when the body of Mattias's father is discover hanging in the woods in an apparent suicide at the exact spot where the child saw someone hanging at the start of the film, which....

Okay. This is one of two points in the movie where logic at least seems to unravel. I'm pretty sure the implication is that Matthias's father is the body the boy saw dead, despite the fact the encounter occurred a few weeks earlier. This, of course, would be a paradox, but it's the way I'm interpretting the narrative. If so, it joins a long list of Christmas stories in which time seems to stop or rewind, a concept that resonates with the winter solstice.

Alternatively, you could interpret it as implying Matthias's father hadn't actually killed himself but rather had been murdered, possibly by the bears who show up at the end.

I promised a second point in which logic unravels, right? The movie ends with Matthias's life falling apart - his wife leaves him (his attempts to confront her are thwarted by his father-in-law, who turns him away at the door, but he seems less violent than pitiful). He actually does briefly seem violent when he shows up at Csilla's house and grabs a gun - she certainly seems afraid for her life - but it's not her he fires at but a bear approaching her. He shoots at the animal a few times, driving it off, only to chase it to the edge of the woods, where he finds numerous others standing alongside it. Matthias wanders back and looks over his town, and the movie ends with the sound of one of the animals approaching.

That's not actually as "out of left field" as it sounds. The presence of bears was already established - a French naturalist is counting the animal population. And more importantly, a holiday parade establishes the locals view themselves as the creatures - some dress as bears and maintain a tradition in which they ritually fight with men from a neighboring town.

Assuming the Wikipedia article is correct, the movie's title is referencing an electromagnetic phenomenon, which itself is intended as a reference to the sort of deep, underlying exploration of hidden properties (remember those brain scans?), with the implication presumably being that the movie is applying a similar technique in an attempt to understand the racist, xenophobic reactions of its populace. While I don't understand the nuances of Romanian culture - or more accurately cultures, as the movie makes clear the population contains several - well enough to go in depth into what's being explored, the more surface-level implications are pretty obvious.

And fortunately that includes some of the Christmas stuff. The movie uses the holidays as a backdrop to illustrate the hypocrisy of those who profess Christianity but are hostile towards others. A hypocrisy, I should note, shared by the town's reverend, who professes the best of intentions but both supports and serves as a de facto mouthpiece for those demanding the foreign workers leave.

The movie also seems to be playing with connections between tradition and the season. I should note that its depiction of those traditions isn't negative - the music and way of life are presented in a positive light. Instead, it's the misperception that others represent some sort of threat towards culture that results in fear and destructive behavior (including self-destructive, as the movie's ominous ending implies).

In addition, the specific holiday the movie's set at adds some weight: this is all explicitly occurring during the 2019/2020 Christmas season. This may be to keep it close to the actual events that inspired the story, but it's also significant that the movie's events play out right before the start of the pandemic. I don't know how this specific region fared, but they were certainly about to be more isolated and cut off from the world than even the most xenophobic members of their community wanted. During such a time, you have to assume the hatred and mistrust turn inward, particularly because there's clearly lingering animosity between groups aligned only by the threat of outsiders.

Again, I don't understand any of this well enough to speak with any authority here, but that's my interpretation of those encroaching bears at the end. 

Regardless of how far you want to analyze the movie's symbolism and esoteric ideas, it's a fantastic drama about bigotry in isolated, rural communities, and a warning to those who pursue a strategy of avoiding the problem. That aspect of the film loses nothing in translation and sadly seems fairly close to universal right now no matter what continent you're living on.

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