Moartea domnului Lazarescu (2005)

English title: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.
Synopsis: A 63 year old man who lives alone starts to feel unwell after a fall and phones the ambulance service. The ambulance takes hours to come. He is taken to a hospital but this is only the beginning of a long medical odyssey.
Appraisal: Remarkable for its attention to character and its impeccable mise-en-scène, this is a story that should have been made into a film long ago. Well, better late than never. This film is being read in too narrow terms, as if it were simply an exposé of a defficient health system. In fact, I think it transcends that; its appeal is more far-reaching and it illustrates the human condition by picking an extreme situation. Congratulations to Romania for having given us this gem; here in Brazil, the closest we got to making such a movie was Divina Previdência (1984), a short film about a derelict who passes away before he gets medical assistance.
Rating: 71 (2nd position in 2005's best films)