 Ion Fiscuteanu plays the film's 63-year-old, cat-loving hero |
Romanian film The Death of Mr Lazarescu - a black comedy drama charting a man's slow demise in real time - has won BBC Four's fourth World Cinema award. The prize was announced at a ceremony held at London's National Film Theatre, hosted by broadcaster Jonathan Ross.
Director Cristi Puiu, who flew in from Bucharest to pick up his award, called it "a very important prize".
He said he was "very glad" to receive an accolade "from one of the most famous broadcasters in the world".
The film was selected from a shortlist that included such acclaimed foreign-language titles as Pedro Almodovar's Volver and Austrian thriller Hidden.
'Diversity'
Puiu won the Un Certain Regard award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for two European Film Awards.
Last year's award was won by the German film Downfall, which recreated Adolf Hitler's final hours in his Berlin bunker.
"The diversity of films shortlisted for this award demonstrates the incredibly high standard of world cinema today," said BBC Four controller Janice Hadlow.
The 2007 judging panel comprised actor Peter Capaldi, star of BBC Four's The Thick of It, and the critics Peter Bradshaw and Leslie Felperin.
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