One of Europe’s finest filmmakers, Lucian Pintilie’s work has explored questions of tyranny and remorse—often relating directly or allegorically to the history of his own country. His work also evokes the remembrance of the tolerant and cosmopolitan nature of his hometown, a German village within Southern Bessarabia which he describes as a halcyon polyglot and multicultural community, a key detail which has informed his body of work. He fled Romania in the 70s, and returned to his home country following the end of communism, and then made extraordinary films about life and its absurdities, beginning with The Oak (1992) and continuing with such acclaimed films as Afternoon of a Torturer (2001) and Niki and Flo (2003), “a mordant almost-comedy that represents a bridge—and also a battle—between the old Romania and the new.” (A. O. Scott, The New York Times) As Pintilie has observed about his own work, “What is the survival strategy of a community in a state of perpetual catastrophe?… And when does making fun—the assumed irresponsibility, the dark humor that we, Romanians, are so proud of—stop being an impenetrable shield? This is the number one matter in all my movies.” He has been both a prolific auteur and a supporter of a new generation of filmmakers.