Two films from Romanian realist director Cristian Mungiu get Criterion releases

The gifted Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) makes grimly powerful, impeccably acted realist thrillers about a society that, in thrall to rigid tradition and run-of-the-mill corruption, is slowly failing its own.

“Beyond the Hills,” released in 2013 in U.S. theaters,...