After suffering terrible headaches and stomach cramps, Mr. Lăzărescu, a lonely 63 year-old man, calls for an ambulance, beginning one man’s hellish journey through Bucharest hospitals in search of proper medical care. As the night unfolds, his health starts to deteriorate fast.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.5/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 87
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Cristi Puiu
Production
Mandragora
Cast
Ion Fiscuteanu, Luminița Gheorghiu, Doru Ana, Monica Bîrlădeanu, Alina Berzunțeanu, Alexandru Potocean, Dana Dogaru, Florin Zamfirescu, Dragoș Bucur, Mimi Brănescu, Dan Chiriac, Dorian Boguță, Mihai Brătilă, Robert Bumbes, Mirela Cioabă, Laura Creț, Bogdan Dumitrache, Alexandru Fifea, Florina Alina Gleznea, Tudor Hristescu
Curator Review
Verdict
A bleak, darkly funny, and deeply humane hospital odyssey that turns bureaucratic failure into a near-unbearable pressure cooker. Its realism, patience, and moral clarity make it one of the defining films of the Romanian New Wave.
Best for
Viewers who like slow-burn realism and observational filmmaking
Fans of dark social satire and institutional critique
People drawn to claustrophobic, high-stakes dramas
Audiences comfortable with emotionally punishing, uncompromising cinema
Skip if
You want a fast-paced plot or conventional suspense
You dislike naturalistic acting and long takes
You need an uplifting or cathartic ending
You prefer clearly heroic characters or tidy moral resolutions
Overview
Cristi Puiu turns a simple premise into a devastating portrait of a system that keeps failing the person in front of it. The film’s power comes from its accumulation of small humiliations, procedural delays, and exhausted conversations, all rendered with an almost documentary patience that makes every refusal feel real.
Worth noting
What begins as black comedy gradually hardens into a nightmare of indifference, where no one is fully monstrous and no one is able to help. That ambiguity is what makes the film sting: it is not just about one man’s death, but about how institutions, fatigue, and self-protection can erase basic human care.
Bottom line
It is also unexpectedly funny, in a grim, deadpan way, with performances that feel lived-in rather than performed. The result is a landmark of modern European realism: harrowing, intimate, and unforgettable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋 (4.5★) · 441 likes
Lazarescu Dante Remus.Lazarescu. Dante. Remus.
•He lives in Bucharest, Rumania.•He lives at 2 Fetesti Street, on the second floor of the building F4, in flat 17.•He has an older sister, Eva, living in Târgu Mureș and a daughter, Bianca, married and living in Toronto, Canada.•He underwent an ulcer surgery 14 years ago.•He “drinks, like any other man”, despite his ulcer surgery. But don’t think he “would drink any crap”. He drinks “Ma-stro-pol”: a drink made… more
Aki Menzies (4.5★) · 225 likes
Couldn't get anyone to sit through this with me, which is too bad because it's painfully rewarding. I haven't seen a movie this sharp (and often funny) that is able to address the systematic failures of a government.
Paul Elliott (4.5★) · 101 likes
Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu provides a darkly comedic tone to this intimate and personal glimpse into the emergency health care system in Bucharest. The film possesses a documentary aesthetic with fluid-moving cameras overseen by cinematographer Oleg Mutu, and although the movie does not have any traditional heroes and villains, it underlines it's sentiments by periodically characterising members of the medical faculty as humanitarians or as disrespectful and unsympathetic egotists.
The narrative follows an ailing Mr Lazarescu, who is portrayed wonderfully… more
Darren Carver-Balsiger (4.5★) · 91 likes
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is one of those films which seems totally unique. It's a film executed in a special way, drawing on intense realism and finding the darkest possible comedy in unaccommodating healthcare procedures. The story follows a sick man taken to hospital, only to be continually moved from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor. Through bad judgment, changing priorities, and just being unlucky, he ends up continually unable to get treatment. A kind paramedic sticks by him,… more The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is one of those films which seems totally unique. It's a film executed in a special way, drawing on intense realism and finding the darkest possible comedy in unaccommodating healthcare procedures. The story follows a sick man taken to hospital, only to be continually moved from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor. Through bad judgment, changing priorities, and just being unlucky, he ends up continually unable to get treatment. A kind paramedic sticks by him,… more
nick (4.5★) · 89 likes
Known as the first Romanian New Wave full-length work to make an impact internationally, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is the best this underrated genre offers -- hyper-realistic, bleak, and riveting as the world it depicts.
Watching Romanian New Wave cinema is like immersing yourself in a full docudrama experience and exploring both the beauty and banality of life along with the characters. In this equally intense and infuriating drama, we follow Mr. Lazarescu, an ailing old man in Bucharest,… more