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.

Two years before his compatriot Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or, Cristi Puiu won a prize at Cannes for this ingenious 21st-century classic, a key film from the Romanian New Wave. A pitch-black and Kafkaesque contemporary comedy, it reveals the myriad nuances involved in the quest for human care.