Though it's just before Christmas, his arrival doesn't exactly delight his estranged wife, Ana. He returns home to a struggling Romanian village in Transylvania. The main character is Matthias, played by Marin Grigore, who as the action begins, flees his job at a German slaughterhouse after headbutting a co-worker who calls him a gypsy. He catches our precise historical moment in his new one, 'R.M.N.,' a piercing, enigmatic story that's set in bleak, present-day Romania but is profoundly relevant to what's happening almost everywhere. Its leading light is Cristian Mungiu, who highlighted Romania's claim to attention by winning the 2007 Palme d'Or at Cannes with his abortion drama '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 Days.' Since then, he's made only three features, but they've shown Mungiu unmatched at capturing how social forces twist people into knots. And while Romanian cinema is less known, it's produced a wave of filmmakers whose work dwarfs the movies coming out of, say, France or Sundance. South Korea has become not just a film but a pop culture juggernaut. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: Back in 1999, if you'd asked me to guess which film cultures would be the most exciting in the next century, I would never have picked South Korea and Romania.

He says 'R.M.N.' cuts to the very heart of what's happening in the world right now. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, thinks he's one of the best filmmakers anywhere. The movie, which is now playing in theaters, was made by Cristian Mungiu. In the new Romanian film 'R.M.N.,' a village in Transylvania is thrown into turmoil when the local bakery hires workers from Sri Lanka.

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