In what many critics are calling one of the films of the year, Radu Jude takes two days in the life of an overworked Romanian production assistant, Angela (the incredible Ilinca Manolache), and gives us an urgent, pissed off, sourly funny polemic on the state of late capitalism that anyone can relate to. Tasked with filming half a dozen audition tapes with accident victims for a corporate work safety video, Angela also makes time to post scabrous TikTok videos as her cult alter-ego, Bobita, using a filter to transform herself into a misogynist Andrew Tate clone. On top of which Jude also throws in parallel clips from a (genuine) 1981 Romanian movie, Angela Moves On, about a Bucharest taxi driver played by Dorina Lazar.
The Godard of our times, Jude is an essential filmmaker for anyone serious about political cinema. Exploitation, discrimination and hypocrisy are his targets; dialectics are his dynamite. Adventurous, audacious, infuriating and inspiring, the film won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno to set beside the Golden Bear he won at Berlin for Bad Luck Banging, or Looney Porn.
A collage perched between road movie and black comedy, Jude’s latest is another effervescent study of life in the 21st century, a work that’s engineered to both sponge something of our screens-infested zeitgeist and interrogate its textures. Few filmmakers are so reliably able to conjure snapshots of modern capitalism and its neuroses; fewer still can douse those documents with so much playfulness and wonder as Jude.
Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage
Crass and sublime, trashy and sophisticated, headbanging and highbrow… This is a raucously entertaining and provocative piece, its sociopolitical antennas acutely tuned to our present moment and twitching with comic fury.
Jonathan Romney, Financial Times
The film further confirms Radu Jude as one of the most idiosyncratic, uncompromising, and intellectually vigorous of living filmmakers.
Seth Katz, Slant Magazine
Media Partner
Radu Jude
Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Nina Hoss, Dorina Lazăr, Katia Pascariu, Uwe Boll
Romania/Luxembourg/
France/Croatia
2023
In Romanian with English subtitles
Special Jury Prize, Locarno 2023
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Executive Producer
Diana Caravia
Producer
Ada Solomon, Adrian Sitaru
Screenwriter
Radu Jude
Cinematography
Marius Panduru
Editor
Cătălin Cristuțiu
Production Design
Cristian Niculescu, Andreea Popa
Also in This Series
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino (Queer; Call Me By Your Name) snaps back into gear with this sexy, fun screwball comedy masquerading as a sports film. Frenemies Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor compete for the favours of Zendaya, on and off the tennis court.
About Dry Grasses
The latest from Turkish master Ceylan (The Wild Pear Tree) is a complex, multi-layered and ultimately lacerating portrait of an art teacher stuck in a rural backwater he can't wait to escape, accused of inappropriate behaviour by his favourite pupil.
Good One
This movie feels like a perfect short story. 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) gamely heads out on a camping weekend with her recently remarried dad (James LeGros) and his newly divorced buddy, Matt (Danny McCarthy). They bitch. She absorbs.
I Saw the TV Glow
Two misfits are sucked into the deranged world of a supernatural TV show. Trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun taps into something deeply disquieting in ways that reverberate long after viewing.
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude takes two days in the life of a stressed Romanian p.a. and gives us an urgent, pissed off, sourly funny polemic on the state of late capitalism. Exploitation, discrimination and hypocrisy are his targets; dialectics are his dynamite.
Close Your Eyes
Twenty years after the film he was directing fell apart when the leading man disappeared, Miguel (Manolo Solo) agrees to reopen the mystery for a TV show... He needs the money, and he's ready for a reckoning. A late masterpiece from Victor Erice.
Thelma
We've seen geriatric vigilante movies before but June Squibb, who recently turned 95, is definitely pushing the envelope. Squibb is a delight as a still independent senior scammed into posting bail for her beloved slacker grandson. Comedy of the year.
All We Imagine as Light
What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.