CANNES, France--It seems fitting that Romanian director Cristi Puiu, known for his bleakly realistic takes on ordinary life in his homeland, would describe his latest film "Sieranevada" as an opportunity to correct previous mistakes.
Puiu, who won the festival's Un Certain Regard award in 2005 with The Death of Mr Lazarescu, presented his latest offering on Thursday.
Full of long takes and static shots, the Romanian drama surrounding a family reunion chronicles the goings on at a memorial ceremony for a departed relative, with family secrets revealed and mutual animosities emerging as the story progresses.
Like his films, which shine a light on the gritty realities of ordinary life, Puiu has a humility that distances him from the barefaced self-promotion that often accompanies the film business. Asked if he was happy with the result of "Sieranevada", Puiu said he was satisfied, but as a filmmaker there was always room for improvement.
"I mean every film that I'm making, it's another opportunity to correct what I did wrong in the previous film," he told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "So there are steps, steps towards I don't know, we'll see if the last film I'm going to make is going to be something else than just another imperfect object.”
Puiu, 49, said being nominated for the Palme d'Or was a privilege although not a goal.
"It's like a gift when you are making a film you don't think of the Palme d'Or, you don't think of the (Berlin Film Festival's) Golden Bear, the Golden Lion (award in Venice) or the Oscars," he said. "The problems you have to solve on the set are so very serious that everything that is related to film festivals is just a completely different planet."
Puiu, whose other works include the mordant Aurora, said that he had no intention of reading any reviews of his latest film, describing the process as "painful".
"I'm going to keep a distance, it's very good to hear the people like it...," he said. "At the same time you can be put in this situation that people didn't like it, they have something to say about it more than the people that like it."
"Sieranevada" is one of 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or.
