"Death of Mr. Lazarescu"
2005
Directed by Cristi Puiu

Cristi Puiu's darkly humorous film about an ailing man's nightmarish evening in hospital emergency wards is a category defying modern masterpiece. Ion Fiscuteanu plays the titular Lazarescu, an aging, unstable Romanian drunk who is greeted by a parade of absurdity and indifference at a variety of hospitals, each more painfully inane than the last. Shot in a convincing, naturalistic manner, Puiu's film is a triumph. "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, for all its terrible matter-of-factness, produces tumultuous feelings of amazement and revolt" (David Denby, The New Yorker). Romanian with English subtitles  153 minutes.