Film: Death of Mister Lazarescu (reviewed by Nick Shelley)

I just had to share the experience of this extraordinary film which was shown - for one night only early this year - at the Phoenix Arts in Leicester (if you haven't yet found it, it's easily the most serious film venue in these parts).

It's like ER as a black comedy seen from the viewpoint of a victim of the system and the persistent paramedic who shepherds him through the night-long descent. Mr Lazarescu is a 60-something living alone in his Bucharest flat and when the film opens he is phoning something like NHS Direct for help - a paramedic attends him, and setting out on her mission loads him into the ambulance. As the night unfolds in all its rich and detailed horror, he will be taken to four hospitals. First he is treated with a mixture of care and contempt, and rejected as a drunk. At the next, where his condition is visibly deteriorating, he has a scan (the radiologist owes someone a favour). However he must go a third hospital for treatment, a Kafka-esque institution where, now failing and confused, he isn't operated on because he can't sign the consent form. At the last, he is stripped in preparation for the operation that will plainly come too late.

This was dry pitiless humour, carrying the hallmark of truth. It couldn't happen here? Or a grotesque caricature of healthcare, anytown, anywhere? It's presented and acted in a reality fashion, its unfamiliar setting means that you are free to watch it without preconceptions about place, class, or your own local history. I've no idea whether it will pop up again, but don't miss it if it does!

You can buy a DVD of this film by clicking on the title of this post.

Nick Shelley