‘The Death of Mr Lazarescu’

A dark, dark comedy as an old man is shuttled from hospital to hospital in the early hours of a Bucharest morning with the medical staff uncertain how to treat him.

Complaining to his neighbours of ill-health, an ambulance is called for lonely Domnui Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu – Sindromul Timisoara, Too Late). Coinciding with a major road accident, what unfolds, as his health deteriorates, is a series of differing diagnoses as the old man is sent from hospital to hospital. Medic Mioara Avram (Luminita Gheorghiu – Child’s Pose, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) alone stays with a by-now mostly unconscious Lazarescu.

Nuanced social realism in its direction from Cristi Puiu (Manor House, Sieranevada) and a superbly understated ensemble (Gheorghiu is a stand out) highlight institutional and personal disinterest in the social system. Challenging but quietly brilliant.

Rating: 86%

‘Collective’

The corruption and incompetence within the Romanian health service is exposed by a small team of investigative journalists, headed by Catalin Tolontan, of the Gazeta Sporturilor. A fire at the Collective club in Bucharest left 27 dead – but a further 37 died over the coming weeks in hospital: many of the deaths were preventable.

Director Alexander Nanau (Toto & His Sisters, The World According to Ion B) succeeds in creating a seeming real time expose of events, a fly-on-the-wall involvement in the offices of Gazeta Sporturilor and Vlad Voiculescu, the newly appointed Minister of Health. We witness the receipt of whistleblower phone calls as they happen and the minister’s astonishment as more and more is uncovered – mob appointments of hospital management, bribery, dilution of medicines. It’s a tautly told procedural investigation.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 2021 – best documentary and foreign language film.

Rating: 71%

‘Morgen’

Set close to the Romanian/Hungarian border, Marian Crisan’s feature film debut won a whole slew of awards at film festivals around the world (including Thessaloniki, Locarno and Buenos Aires).

It’s a quiet, vaguely humourous take on a serious subject – illegal immigration. Living an almost primitive life on his farm with no running water or electricity, Nelu (András Hatházi) and wife Florica (Elvira Rimbu) barely eke out a living. The farm has such poor returns Nelu works full time as a security guard at the town’s supermarket. He’s bored with everything around him. The arrival of Behran – a Turk desparate to reach Germany – changes all that. Neither men understand a word of each other’s language – yet Nelu determines to help the stranger.

To emphasise the alien nature of the relationship between the two men, Behran remains ‘unsubtitled’ throughout yet the two men achieve a friendship and understanding. So much so, the Turk seems in no particular hurry to leave the safety of his cellar.

Morgen is a light yet barbed commentary on boundaries and borders – but it is ultimately a tale of friendship and common bonds that unite.

Rating: 68%

Director: Marian Crisan (Orizont, Warboy)

Writer: Marian Crisan (Orizont, Warboy)

Main cast: András Hatházi (Orizont, The Inventor), Yilmaz Yalçin (The Woman of My Life, Deneme Çekimi), Elvira Rimbu (Carturan, Freedom)