Almost everyone seems to want to leave Romania, where life does not have much to offer. Luci and his fiancée Sorina have just become homeless. Sorina’s father would have found something, but he has been dead for years. Sorina and Luci go to his grave, waiting for a sign from heaven. However the sign they receive is far from being mystical: a bottle falls from the sky, straight on Luci’s head. Fortunately they get a lift to hospital from a nice Frenchman. For Sorina, this Jérôme is her one chance to improve her situation and she moves in with him straightaway. In an attempt to win back Sorina, Luci takes a job as a living beer bottle. In this way he meets Mihaela, who was jilted at the altar… In addition to being a glib and black comedy, Occident is also a story about migration – and especially about those who stay behind.

 

Born in 1968, Cristian Mungiu studied English and American literature. A graduate of Bucarest film school, he worked as assistant director on some 15 features from 1994 to 1998, among them Bertrand Tavernier’s Captain Conan and Radu Mihaileanu’s Train de vie. A journalist for various magazines, he has published short stories in literary periodicals and directed several prize-winning shorts. He wrote the scripts for Tina and her Mother and For City Ends. Occident is his first feature.