Directed by Cristi Puiu • 2016 • Romania
Starring Mimi Brǎnescu, Judith State, Bogdan Dumitrache
Romanian New Wave leader Cristi Puiu continues to blend the personal and the political to arresting effect in this sprawling, drolly comic family portrait that doubles as an existential X-ray of contemporary Romanian society. In a cramped apartment in Bucharest, a family gathers for a memorial for their recently deceased patriarch. As they wait for the priest to arrive, discussions about everything from the legacy of Communism to 9/11 conspiracy theories spiral into arguments—before the arrival of an uninvited guest throws the commemoration into further turmoil.
Up Next in Romanian New Wave
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Directed by Cristian Mungiu • 2007 • Romania
Starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad IvanovRomanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu shot to international prominence with this rigorously realistic Palme d’Or–winning second feature. In 1987, during the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, colle...
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Police, Adjective
Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu • 2009 • Romania
Starring Dragoş Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina SǎulescuDirector Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST) interrogates the ways in which draconian authority, bureaucracy, and even language continue to shape life in post-Communist Romania in this mor...
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Tuesday, After Christmas
Directed by Radu Muntean • 2010 • Romania
Starring Mimi Branescu, Mirela Oprisor, Maria PopistasuOne of the central figures to emerge from the cinema of the Romanian New Wave, director Radu Muntean has created in TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS a tense, emotionally resonant drama about a middle-aged m...