SIERANEVADA

Three days after the attack on “Charlie Hebdo” and forty days after his father’s death, the doctor Lary (Mimi Brănescu), in his early forties, drives to the memorial gathering at his mother Nușa’s (Dana Dogaru) flat. The family is assembled, the priest has been booked, the food is ready – and stays uneaten, because something keeps getting in the way: late guests, an uninvited intruder, family quarrels, old grievances. Lary finds himself forced to tell his version of the truth and to redefine his place within this family. “Sieranevada” (2016) by the Romanian Cristi Puiu plays out almost in real time and almost entirely within this flat.

Cristi Puiu drives the tools of Romanian cinema – realism, duration, process – to new density across 173 minutes; long takes turn the flat into the stage for a dark comedy. The film screened in the Cannes competition in 2016, Puiu’s first invitation there, and won several Romanian Gopo Awards, including best film, direction and screenplay. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016 in the Romanian Night section.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive