Who would risk organising a family party after Festen, The Royal Tenenbaums, or Brutti, sporchi e cattivi? Cristi Puiu has taken up the challenge. In 2005, the Romanian presented a film about the last days of a surly alcoholic, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.
Twelve years old, but we still haven't recovered from it. Sieranevada does not make the same impact. But an intellectual observational comedy with a dramatic appearance couldn't get much more grim and smirking than this. A small apartment in Bucharest plays host to a group of twenty nephews, nieces, aunts, brothers, and daughters-in-law for a final religious farewell ritual.
The deceased patriarch is unintentionally regaled with a delicious comédie humaine. An adulterous uncle is not welcome, a son loses himself in conspiracy theories, and an aunt annoys everybody by singing the praises of the communist ideals of the past. Nobody can sit down to eat before the priests have done their work. Brilliant.
> Sieranevada. RO, 2016, dir.: Cristi Puiu, act.: Mimi Branescu, Judith State, Bogdan Dumitrache, 173 min.
> Actor's Studio
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