Born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1967, Cristi Puiu is an artist, director, screenwriter and producer.
In 2001, he made his first feature film, Marfa si banii [Stuff and Dough]. Three years later, he founded the production company Mandagrora, together with his wife, Anca Puiu, also a director, and Alex Munteanu, producer. In 2005, Mandragora signed its first production and second feature film by Cristi Puiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. It is with this title that the director is present for the first time at the international class A festivals, directly for the Cannes Film Festival – and his entry could not be more acclaimed: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu wins the Best Film Award in the Section Un Certain Régard.
His third feature film, Aurora, also premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, in 2010, and was part of the Estoril Film Festival Competition.
Cristi Puiu's work is guided by his constant reflection on moral values and philosophical conceptualizations, and is guided by references to literature and a libertarian search for the frontiers of cinematic savoir-faire, as well as the human condition itself.
His most recent film, Malmkrog (2020), is both a milestone and a return: a milestone for being the director's debut at the Berlin Festival with a feature film, as the opening film of the new Encounters section; a return because it is, in itself, an in-depth revisit (and thought of from scratch as a cinematographic object) of Vladimir Solovyov's novel. The script, which was written in 2011 during the workshop, is a drama from a bygone era in 20th-century Transylvania, based on the discussions of a group of well-known intellectuals who delve into both the most intricate and the most basic concepts. In his Berlin debut, Malmkrog was applauded by international critics as another masterpiece by the Romanian director.