Romanian father and daughter deal with hard choices
Take the typical “coming of age” story and flip it on its head. What’s left is a tale of an impending empty nest and all the choices that led up to it. This is the energy Graduation harnesses.
Now out on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, director Cristian Mungiu’s (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) 2016 film is not an overly wrought tale of the lengths a father will go to for his only daughter. Instead, it’s a struggle between the disappointing way one man’s life ended up and his desire for better when it comes to his child.
Romeo (Adrian Titien) has just about crossed the finish line of his daughter Eliza’s (Maria Dragus) primary education. She’s been given scholarships to colleges in England contingent on good scores on her final exams. Things start to go wrong when she’s accosted on her way to school.
Throughout, Romania looms. Romeo sees it as a broken place, fit only for the rear-view mirror of his daughter. From the opening scene of a rock flying through the family’s living room window to Eliza’s assault and beyond, random acts of senselessness continue to occur.
When following the rules appears to be failing his daughter, Romeo falls into an arrangement with a communist-era bureaucrat who looks to be able to grease the right wheels to send Eliza on her way. This turn into an ethical gray area has consequences almost immediately and threatens to undo all of the good work Romeo has done over the years.
Seeing a father struggle both with his own ethical ambiguity as well as his daughter’s growing reluctance to leave her homeland (and her boyfriend) makes plain the vulnerability of those entrusted with the future of a young person. It also exposes the obvious cracks in the facade of this particular marriage, mainly that Romeo’s been having an open affair on his wife Magda (Lia Bugnar). The center cannot hold.
Graduation manages to be both low key and full of tension as the various threads move to conclusion. There’s nothing hyperbolic here, but the stark reality of the consequences of one’s actions are very real.
Extras:
- 2K digital master, approved by director Cristian Mungiu, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with Cristian Mungiu
- Press conference from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, featuring Mungiu and actors Adrian Titieni, Maria Drăguș, Mălina Manovici, and Rareș Andrici
- Deleted scenes
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri