Romanian auteur Radu Jude tosses off films the way other people send emails. Dracula is his fourth feature since Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World in 2023 (Kontinental ’25 also screens at this year’s VIFF), and at 167 minutes, it’s at least half a dozen movies for the price of one. Ironically, it purports to be the work of an uninspired hack director who has previously agreed to make a commercial film about Dracula, but who has no ideas — so he turns to AI.
Issuing prompts based on the Count’s storied cinematic legacy — a touch more Murnau here, some Coppola there — Jude’s on-screen alter ego more than fulfills his mandate to include “sex, nudity, emotion, violence, lots of blood, chases, jokes,” without remotely delivering the “super-commercial” movie he promised the producers. Rather, this is a bawdy, comic deconstruction of Romania’s most exploitable IP from Eastern Europe’s last refusenik, a rude Jude burlesque with something to offend everyone.
Adonis Tanța, Oana Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu, Ilinca Manolache, Alexandru Dabija, Andrada Balea, Doru Talos, Serban Pavlu, Lukas Miko, Alexandra Harapu
Romania/Austria/
Luxembourg/Brazil
2025
In Romanian, English and German with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Alex Teodorescu, Rodrigo Teixeira
Screenwriter
Radu Jude
Cinematography
Marius Panduru
Editor
Cătălin Cristuțiu
Art Director
Andreea Popa
Radu Jude
Radu Jude is the Romanian director and screenwriter of numerous critically acclaimed films, beginning with his feature debut The Happiest Girl in the World in 2009. In 2021, his film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and its follow-up, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, received the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 2023. His latest feature, Kontinental ’25, a low-budget independent production, was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2025 Berlinale.
Filmography: The Happiest Girl in the World (2009); Aferim! (2015); Scarred Hearts (2016); I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018); Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021); Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)
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