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 last month to set beside the Golden Bear he won at Berlin for Bad Luck Banging, or Looney Porn two years ago.
The film further confirms Radu Jude as one of the most idiosyncratic, uncompromising, and intellectually vigorous of living filmmakers.
Slant Magazine
Special Jury Prize, Locarno 2023
Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Nina Hoss, Dorina Lazăr, Katia Pascariu
Romania/Luxembourg/
France/Croatia
2023
Showcase
In Romanian with English subtitles