Liviu Ciulei

Liviu Ciulei (1923-2011) was a Romanian theatre and film director. Born in Bucharest, he studied theatre and architecture, initially working in set design before moving into directing. As artistic director of the Bulandra Theatre between 1963 and 1974, he made his name with innovative stagings of Shakespeare, Brecht, and domestic classics before being forced out after a scandalous production of Gogol’s Government Inspector from fellow director Lucian Pintilie. Ciulei acted in films from the early 1950s until the late 1970s, and directed three features: The Eruption (1957), Waves of the Danube (1961), and Forest of the Hanged (1965), for which he won the Best Director award at Cannes. He left Romania under pressure from the Ceaușescu regime in 1980 to work in the USA, Canada, and Australia, before returning to the Romanian stage following the 1989 revolution.