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Dante Lăzărescu

(played by the excellent Ion Fiscuteanu) complains to his neighbor

s

about

stomach pains

,

they

call

and

ambulance and this triggers a night of horror, with him being passed on from one hospital to the other in the course of one night

until the last one finally admits him

.

Mr

Lăzăresc

u

encounters no sympathy, not to mention competence, and the ending, as you might imagine

and guess from the title,

is not the happiest one. His only friend is a

paramedic

but even her care cannot compensate for the criminally

imperfect

medical system.

Fo

r any chuckle about the absurdity of the situation there is one pang to

the heart of every person who has been in a Romanian hospital. In this respect,

The Death of Mr. L

ăzărescu

transcends its fictional frame and offers a lucid, biting,

and ultimately human

picture of the Romanian health care system. And not just the health system, but of a social system to which normality and empathy are often foreign terms.

Th

e strength

s

of the film lie more than in its mature subject handling and the excellent acting. Director Cristi Puiu employs an

array

of

'

realist

', documentary-style te

chniques, with a camera which is mainly hand-held and shaky, naturalistic lighting, and long, uncut scenes

. There are no pretty shots, no dazzling tricks, no

big-

emotion

s

-

generating

soundtrack. And it is exactly this impressively assured mix of content and form that make

The Death of Mr. L

ăzărescu

an endlessly

gripping,

mesmerizing

piece of art.

You can purchase the DVD at any Cărturești shop or at their online store.