CRISTIAN MUNGIU - Director

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 170 - Cristian Mungiu - Director

In this extended episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with director Cristian Mungiu (R.M.N., GRADUATION, BEYOND THE HILLS). Cristian's films—which we deeply admire—largely focus on social issues in his native country of Romania, and though they are told in his own unique voice, his films explore problems many in the world face today. We learn how the fall of communism and Ceaușescu's regime in Cristian's youth enabled him to become a filmmaker, and he reflects on the lingering effects of the country's cinematic culture before and after the Romanian Revolution. We spend much of our conversation discovering how Cristian approaches filmmaking and cinematic storytelling, and he shares how he works on any given day in production. Cristian also reveals how his films are received by Romanian audiences, and we discuss our commitment as filmmakers to presenting the truth as we see it. Plus, Cristian lets us know what to expect in his upcoming feature, FJORD.

Recommended Viewing: R.M.N., GRADUATION, BEYOND THE HILLS

This episode is sponsored by Aputure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to Season 2 of the Team Deacons podcast,
0:07.0	a collection of informal conversations between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:13.0	We never know where the conversation will take us, so listen in and see where it goes.
0:21.9	This episode is sponsored by Aperture and its new Storm XT-52, the industry's most
0:29.5	powerful LED point source light. Brighter than a 6K HMI and powered by Aperture's revolutionary
0:36.8	Blair light engine, the Storm XT-52 is both a tunable
0:41.9	white light and also the brightest ever adjustable color LED.
0:47.5	Storm XT-52, unrivaled output, only from Aperture.
0:58.0	Today we're speaking with the director.
1:04.9	His credits include four months, three weeks, and two days, graduation, and RMN.
1:08.1	We're pleased to welcome Christian Munjou.
1:10.7	Christian, thank you for doing this. Yeah, welcome.
1:11.6	Thank you so much for joining us.
1:13.6	This is a real tree.
1:14.6	We've been looking forward to this.
1:16.6	Thank you for the invitation.
1:18.6	We'd like to start with our regular question, which is, how did you get to where you are today?
1:23.6	When you were a kid, were you really interested in films or did
1:30.3	you find it later in life? What's your story?
1:33.3	Well, when I was a kid, I was living during the, the, doing communism.
1:39.3	So life was a little bit different. I don't have this regular story of a person who has lived with a cinema taking his town
1:49.5	by watching films from the history of cinema.
	...

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