Traffic

Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) penned this loose adaptation of the notorious 2012 art robbery, where Romanian migrants stole paintings by Monet, Gauguin, and Picasso, among others, from a Dutch museum and later burned them to conceal their tracks.  Much like Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, TRAFFIC strips the heist of all glamour; the crime is clumsy and anti-spectacular, serving as a strangely empathetic act of revenge for their misery as invisible, second-rate citizens. The ultimate irony of this social-realistic dramedy—the source of the film’s absurd humor—lies in the East-West cultural clash: the thieves, mistaking the Matisse for a “Matiz” car, realize the masterpieces are functionally worthless to them, a paradox guaranteeing their poverty persists. Featuring the magnetic Anamaria Vartolomei (seen this year in Mickey 17), Romania’s Oscar submission is a tragicomic yet pointed reflection on class, migration, and injustice.

Screening as part of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema