A selection at Cannes, TIFF, and NYFF, Romanian filmmaker Radu Muntean’s latest work Întregalde plays with notions of genre trappings to tell a grounded story of humanitarian impulses. Set in rural Transylvania as we follow a trio of aid workers who find themselves in an unfamiliar locale, the new U.S. trailer for the Grasshopper Film release has arrived ahead of a March 18 theatrical release.
C.J. Prince said in his review, “For a good chunk of its runtime, Întregalde uses a horror blueprint, playing on familiar tropes while keeping intentions hidden. Take one look at the film’s poster and you’ll get the idea: an abandoned car in the dark, the interior light on but no one inside, the windows fogged up, and the title frantically scratched on the door. The genre’s a fitting match for someone like Muntean, given his tendency to let scenes unfold in long takes doubling as high-wire acts, the camera’s minimal presence building tension with each passing second. There’s an expectation of the other shoe dropping at any moment, a tactic that worked well in prior features One Floor Below or Alice T. It turns out that, when stranding people in the middle of nowhere with just the elements and suspicious townsfolk around them, Muntean’s little goes a long way.”
See the trailer below.
Întregalde opens on March 18 at Film Forum.