Cristi Puiu

Cristi Puiu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈkristi ˈpuju]; born 3 April 1967) is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. With Anca Puiu and Alex Munteanu, in 2004 he founded a cinema production company, naming it Mandragora.

After returning to Romania, Puiu started writing and directing his first films. He had enjoyed critical success.

Early life, education and career

He was born Christian Emilian Puiu to Iuliana and Emilian Puiu in Bucharest, Romania. Puiu's first interest in art was painting. In 1992, he was admitted as a student to the Painting Department of École Supérieure d'Arts Visuels in Geneva. After the first year he switched to film studies at the same school, where he graduated in 1996. He started working in film after his return to Romania.

He is married to Anca Puiu. He and Anca have three children: Smaranda, Ileana and Zoe.

Career

Director

Cristi Puiu's debut as a director was in 2001 with the low-budget road movie Stuff and Dough (Marfa şi Banii), starring Alexandru Papadopol and Dragoş Bucur. The film received several awards in international film festivals and competed in the Quinzaines des Realisateurs section of the Cannes Film Festival. Some critics say that this is the film that started the Romanian New Wave in cinema. He continued with a short film, Cigarettes and Coffee (Un cartuş de Kent şi un pachet de cafea) (2004), which was awarded the Golden Bear for best short film at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival.