kviff.com
News
Festival Guide
  • Tickets and Festival Pass
  • Accommodations
  • Transportation
  • Festival cinemas
  • No Barriers project
  • Kids at the festival
  • Festival Shop
Program
  • Catalogue of films
  • Accompanying programme
  • Archive of films
  • Audience award
  • KVIFF Talks
  • Film Entry
Film Industry
  • Industry accreditation
  • Film Industry at KVIFF
  • Industry Days Programme
  • KVIFF Eastern Promises
  • KVIFF Talents
Press
  • Press accreditation
  • Press Service
  • For download
  • Press releases
  • Photogallery
  • Videogallery
About the festival
  • Festival description
  • Programme sections
  • Awards
  • History
  • We support non-profits
  • Photogallery
  • Partners
  • Why We Support the Festival
  • Contacts
CZ
Sign in
Film Archive

Aurora

East of the West - Competition 2010 / Aurora / Romania, France, Switzerland, Germany 2010

At age 42, Viorel is an inconspicuous, newly divorced man living in the suburbs of Bucharest; he is also someone planning to commit murder. The new film by the director of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a movie that helped promote contemporary Romanian film, ponders murder as something dangerously ordinary.

Aurora

Synopsis

"There is no such thing as a murderer, only people who kill.” With these words director Cristi Puiu qualifies his careful study of contemporary Romanian society and of fatal acts such as murder. The film focuses on 42-year-old Viorel who is going through a gloomy period of life that leads him to the point of killing without it being clear whether or not it’s his divorce and his conflict with loved ones provoking him to open fire. The film attempts to demystify the act of murder, rendering it as something in no way spectacular, just as there is nothing remarkable about a person who commits murder. The director doesn’t psychologize his characters or indicate where they are heading, while his intentionally staid narrative contributes to the overall suspense and lack of certainty. Although Viorel’s behavior doesn’t make him stand out, he gives the impression of having been long divorced from reality. Or is it the whole of society that’s become detached from reality?

About the film

181 min / Color, 35 mm

Director Cristi Puiu / Screenplay Cristi Puiu / Dir. of Photography Viorel Sergovici / Editor Ioachim Stroe / Producer Anca Puiu, Bobby Paunescu / Production Mandragora, Société Parisienne de Production, Bord Cadre Films, Essential Filmproduktion / Cast Cristi Puiu, Clara Voda, Valeria Seciu, Luminita Gheorghiu, Catrinel Dumitrescu / Contact Coproduction Office

About the director

Cristi Puiu

Cristi Puiu (b. 1967, Bucharest) began shooting short films and documentaries while at school in Geneva. In 2001 he debuted with the road movie Stuff and Dough (Marfa si banii), which screened at Cannes and competed at Karlovy Vary in the East of the West section. After his short movie Cigarettes and Coffee (Un cartuş de Kent şi un pachet de cafea, 2004) won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale, he drove his success home with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Moartea domnului Lăzărescu, 2005); the work was awarded at Cannes and led the way for the Romanian film industry’s international boom. Puiu returns to Bucharest’s outskirts in Aurora, a film screened in Cannes’ prestigious Un certain regard section, with the director taking the lead role.

Contacts

Coproduction Office
24, rue Lamartine, 750 09, Paris
France
Phone: +33 156 026 000
Fax: +33 156 026 001
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Céline Lin
Sales Agent

Viorel Sergovici
Director of Photography

Other partners
Newsletter

First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.

Follow us on the web:

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
is part of the KVIFF Group family, which covers other projects as well:

© 2025 KVIFF GROUP

Rules for Visitors / Website visitors privacy policy / GTC / Personal Data Protection / Rules for Claim / Rules and Regulations / Contacts