Mr. Lazarescu lives alone, and one night he falls ill. After arriving at the hospital by ambulance, a bizarre tragic, and comic odyssey unfolds as he sees doctor after doctor to diagnose his condition. In what director Cristi Puiu describes as his answer to Eric Rohmer′s Six Moral Tales, the first entry is this story about an invisible man who fades into oblivion-as we all will, either by choice or circumstance. The microcosm of Romanian society offered by a hospital provided Puiu with the perfect setting in which to explore all aspects of humanity and its inherent banal comedy. The confined space of the hospital-exteriors are completely absent-is the ideal medium through which to convey the emotions of the dying man, much the way Franz Kafka and Leo Tolstoy illustrated the transitional period between life and death. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is a dark yet hopeful film filled with intensely human characters with recognizable foibles that we all have in common.