A 62-year old retired engineer who lives alone with his cats in a Bucharest apartment building feels ill with headaches and vomiting. He thinks his old ulcer is acting up and calls the ambulance. Over 30 minutes later, it arrives, and thus begins Dante Remus Lazarescu's (Ion Fiscuteanu) nighttime journey through the Romanian medical system, as the ambulance crew is directed to take him from one hospital to the next, misdiagnosed, mistreated and his health rapidly declining. Though certainly a reflection on contemporary Eastern European society and its medical personnel, this striking and singular film's theme is universal: the need to recognize and accordingly treat the humanity in all people. Incredibly moving and swiftly paced for its running time, the film is punctuated with moments of dark humor. And the performances by the two leads, Fiscuteanu and Luminta Gheorghiu, who plays the ambulance nurse, are extraordinary. "Puiu's is the art of the seemingly artless: he takes a story that's utterly unglamorous and mundane, and transforms it into something mythic." (Newsweek) Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, the film also landed in the number one slot of a multitude of critics' Top Ten Lists for 2006. More at tartanfilmsusa.com
2005, color, 2 hours 34 minutes, Romania