Interview: Romanian director Puiu displays story of truth and lies at Cannes

Cristi Puiu, Romanian movie director presenting his film "Sieranevada" in competition at the ongoing 69th Cannes Film Festival, wanted to present a story about the fictional reality we live in.

"I'm inviting the audience to ask themselves what your life is made of and what kind of fiction you fall for already," Puiu told Xinhua in an exclusive phone interview at Cannes.

"So we don't really know what happiness is, so in order to build a comfortable life we are picking all the 'stories' which are convenient for ourselves," he explained.

Sieranevada tells a story in which, three days after the bloody attack on the offices of Parisian weekly Charlie Hebdo and 40 days after the death of his father, Lary, a doctor in his forties is about to spend the Saturday at a family gathering to commemorate the deceased.

But the occasion does not go according to expectations. Forced to confront his fears and his past, to rethink the place he holds within the family, Lary finds himself constraint to tell his version of the truth.

Asked about the starting point of the movie, Puiu said it was more like something related to himself and his family which was the loss of his father in 2007.

"The dinner with all my family members and friends after his funeral was a moment triggered, not the idea of the film but the need of make a film about that event," he said.

"My goal was also to separate truth from lies, the dinner and the funeral of my father was a revelation that we are living in our fictions, and from that I started to write the script," Puiu added.

"The story of my movie is not a Romanian one, you could find it in Italy, Spain, U.S., or Congo, because, besides the cultural differences, humans are the same everywhere, and the human brain is building up different stories for every one of us but the process is the same," the Romanian director told Xinhua.

As for his directing skills, Puiu said he carried on the same approach both with professional and non-professional actors.

"I'm allowing myself to improvise, then I invite them to work together to find the right solutions. This process is not easy for everybody, but some actors are ready to participate in this way on this quest for the right tone," Puiu said, adding that his method is closer to music than to theatre.

On the actual moral and economic crisis, Puiu clarified that "there are directors living in their own world, while I live in the real one. I share your problems and anxieties. I don't have answers to a lot of questions but I'm very concerned about this increasing violence all around the world."

"In order to escape sufferings unconsciously, we are going to build up stories which are adapted according to the degree of our suffering," he added.

Asked about his plans for the future, the Romanian director disclosed he has started several scripts but he was not sure to make another film.

"20 years ago I switched to cinema but my artistic career started as a painter, so I'm thinking to get back to paint," Puiu said.

Puiu won 2005 the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival with "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and entered in the same selection with "Aurora" in 2010. Endit