Among the guests who come to the mansion of aristocratic landowner Nikolai over Christmas are a politician, a young countess, and a general with his wife. They dine and discuss topics such as progress and morality. As the debate becomes more heated, cultural differences become increasingly apparent.

Grand themes and heated discussions are served at a 19th century Christmas Eve dinner party in this major, Berlinale-winning work from Cristi Puiu. Formally elegant yet wryly punctuated, Malmkrog tightens its dialectical screws with one eye on the present, the other on droll, Buñuelian ironies.