Lucian Pintilie was born in Bucharest in 1933 and studied at the Institute of Cinematical and Theatrical Arts. From 1956 to 1965, he directed for Romanian television and staged classical and contemporary plays. In 1972, he fled the Ceaucescu regime and settled in Paris, where he staged 'Turandot' at the Théâtre de Chaillot, then, plays by Chekhov, Ionescu, Gorki, Ibsen, Pirandello and Strindberg, at the Théâtre de la Ville.