[WGH]

Graduation is a haunting film about a father in current day Romania trying to make a better life for his daughter. Eliza's future will be determined by her final senior high school exams, now in doubt because she was sexually assaulted the day before the tests are scheduled to begin. Eliza's father is a well respected doctor and his friends sympathize with Eliza's plight and want to help. There are no evil characters in "Graduation" but life in Post-Communist Romania is very hard, a little back-scratching and bribery helps everybody. The characters don't see it that way, to them it is simply "friends helping friends".



Graduation has a leisurely pace with long takes and no soundtrack combined with suspense and a feeling of dread. You care for the characters and the film draws you in, slowly at first until you are totally mesmerized by their plight. The interior design is bleak reminding me of early 20th Century apartments like my Grandparents lived in. Graduation is a travelog into contemporary Romanian life.



Director, writer, and producer Cristian Mungiu won the Best Director Award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for Graduation.
Graduation was also awarded a Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

95% on RT - watch the trailer
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/graduation_2017