Cristi Puiu has made a reputation as the most exacting and ambitious filmmaker to rise out of the Romanian New Wave. His latest, Sieranevada, is every bit as rigorous as his masterpieces The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Aurora. Set in a cramped apartment, Nasu Mirica (Dana Dogaru) has invited her family over for a traditional meal to commemorate the life of her husband, Emil, who died 40 days earlier, to allow his soul to pass to heaven. But as siblings, children and a priest arrive, dinner is continuously delayed, a conceit that owes something to Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Puiu effortlessly draws an incisive sociopolitical portrait as the undercurrents that make this family tick, slowly unravel before our eyes.

"Cristi Puiu hones the art of multilayered, deadpan Romanian realism with a physically claustrophobic, emotionally tumultuous interior drama. It's a highly persuasive portrait of family life, replete with intimacies, special alliances, tensions, resentments and reconciliations, but also a revealing study of how that may reflect developments in the wider world." Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound

Winner: Best Film, Best Director, Chicago