Kontinental '25

A cantankerous vagabond crosses the city of Cluj, begging for money and only stopping to rest or eat. Meanwhile, a notary is coordinating the evictions ordered by the city council. The relationship between these two characters revolves around the basement of a building acquired by a construction company, which the former has occupied and the latter must evict him from. The consequences of this legal action are momentous, leading to a moral crisis for the notary which colours each subsequent scene. While the functionary’s drama of conscience bears some distant relation to the psychological adventures of Ingrid Bergman’s character in EUROPA ’51 (1952), the mystical tone of the Rossellini classic is replaced here by furiously ironic comedy that addresses both Romanian history and the turbulent contemporary world. Jude’s observational acuity is well-known, and nothing is here by chance: an object, a movie quote, a street sign, the languages spoken by the protagonist, the chosen monuments, the gallery of characters, their obsessions. These open signs intermingle in turn with the dialogues, forming a critical indictment of an economic and political system rooted in inequality. (Roger Koza)

In the presence of Eszter Tompa.

Radu Jude (selection): THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (2009), EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY (2012), AFERIM! (2015), SCARRED HEARTS (2016), THE DEAD NATION (2017), I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (2018), THE EXIT OF THE TRAINS (2020, KO-REGIE), UPPERCASE PRINT (2020), BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (2021), DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (2023), SLEEP 2 (2024), EIGHT POSTCARDS FROM UTOPIA (2024, CO-DIRECTOR), DRACULA (2025)