Aurora

Director Cristi Puiu’s follow-up to his Romanian New Wave landmark THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU is a mesmerizingly tense, daringly minimalist crime thriller infused with a creeping existential dread. The director himself stars as Viorel, a deeply alienated forty-two-year-old man who wanders through Bucharest, drifting through enigmatic, increasingly unsettling encounters with family members, coworkers, and strangers. Troubled by obscure thoughts—and armed with a shotgun—he drives across the city to a destination known only to him.