Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu drives us around various of the hospitals in Bucharest in this maddening journey as we follow the dismay of poor old Dante Remus Lăzărescu while he is being dispatch by one doctor and hospital to another.

The film serves as a great criticism of a health system flooded in bureaucratic and administrative procedures and an overworked staff that relies too much in assumptions, first impressions and prejudices for their assessments. Precisely this last aspect is maybe one of the only wrongdoings that you could put on the movie, it is way too pessimistic on their look of the medical staff and how do they approach their work. Although it might be perceived as sort of satire, it really surpasses at some moments the limits of overexaggerating.

When it comes to the characters, it is obviously Mr. Lăzărescu (played perfectly by Ion Fiscuteanu) the one to suffer most the condescendence and contempt, first from his neighbours, then from the ambulance staff and repeatedly from the doctors and nurses from the hospitals. That said, it is precisely with the ambulance attendant (Mioara, played by Luminita Gheorghiu) with the character that the audience can see themselves most identified with as she truly is the one that evokes most credibly the feelings and various emotional phases that we would have throughout this insane journey.

Technically, one other great decision was the decision to film the entire film handheld and with minimum cutting, allowing us to submerge ourselves into the inner works of a hospital, mainly the urgencies areas, just as if it were a documentary film.

The screenplay it is also another aspect to praise, although of course due to the nature of the story it might suffer from some repetition, you could assess that as a needed element to the telling of the story even if it might become a slight weakness. But, it is especially when we look at the interactions between all characters, either patients (mainly from Mr. Lăzărescu), medical staff, or neighbours that the script feels absolutely and ridiculously (even more so considering what is going on in between) real, uplifting the quality of the film to a higher level.

All in all, a great look at the true nature of the human being when dealing with someone else’s pain and more concisely of the healthcare system in Romania, tinted by some hints of extremely dark humour that purposedly does not have as much the intention of making you laugh but making you put your hands over your face and roll your eyes. It is true that, as it was already mentioned, it might go a bit to over the top in some respects, but besides that not much else there is to say badly from this film.