A microscopic examination of cultural tensions felt across Europe (and elsewhere), R.M.N. unfolds in a gray Romanian town where centuries of ethnic division are rekindled when a trio of workers from Sri Lanka arrive to fill unwanted jobs at the local bread factory. Writer-director Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) paints a communal portrait with a large cast of characters, which makes the film feel a bit wandering and amorphous at times. Yet there are arresting, individual moments: an opening sequence in which a boy encounters a paralyzing premonition in the forest; an extended town debate at the community center, which Mungiu stages as an intricately composed fixed take that goes on for 17 minutes; and a spooky final sequence that merges the mundane and the supernatural in a way he also managed in Beyond the Hills. As to the movie’s title, it refers to a brain scan that a minor character undergoes about midway through the film; the resulting images resemble monstrous faces, suggesting a rot in the human psyche that’s too far gone.
