The Cinematheque

Romania

The heightened realism of Romania’s much-celebrated new wave is masterfully deployed in prolific Romanian director Adrian Sitaru’s understated moral drama, inspired by true events. Radu (Tudor Istodor), an eager journalism trainee at a prestigious French news network in Bucharest, is hungry for his career-making break. He believes he’s found it in the story of two underage Romanian girls at the heart of an international sex-trafficking scandal: abducted then forced into prostitution in France, they were discovered by authorities and repatriated back to Romania. With local connections and a native tongue, Radu resolves to interview one of the victims, now in hiding at a monastery, venturing onto dubious moral ground in the process. Romania’s official entry for the upcoming Oscars.