‘Kontinental ’25’ review: Radu Jude returns after winning the Golden Bear

Dir. Radu Jude. Romania 2025. 109mins

Romania’s Radu Jude is a kind of uncommon film-makers for whom the phrase “anticipate the sudden” may really imply one thing. It actually applies to his Berlinale competitors entry Kontinental ’75, as this story of a guilt-ridden bailiff ostensibly resembles standard social realism however then broadens its scope fascinatingly, foregrounding satirical intent and a mischievous diploma of verbal overload.

Will greater than fulfill Jude followers 

Whereas not as formally playful as his final fiction function Do Not Anticipate Too A lot From the Finish of the World or 2021 Berlin Golden Bear winner Unhealthy Luck Banging Or Loony Porn, Kontinental ’75 nonetheless reveals Jude’s socio-political antennae characteristically a-twitch as he scans the up to date temper of each Romania and (because the title suggests) Europe total. That includes a terrific central efficiency by Eszter Tompa, each comedian and affecting, the movie will greater than fulfill Jude followers but in addition convey reassurance to anybody who was worrying that European artwork cinema had misplaced its combative spirit.

The setting is Cluj in Transylvania, considered one of Romania’s wealthier cities the place a homeless aged man, Ion Glanetasu (Gabriel Spahiu) salvages plastic bottles, approaches individuals at pavement cafes and customarily rages on the world. Considerably disrupting the impact of on a regular basis normality are Glanetasu’s encounters with a number of big mannequin dinosaurs (precise points of interest in an area Dinopark) and a splendidly testy contretemps with a robotic canine.

Glanetasu returns to an deserted boiler room the place he’s presently crashing, however receives a go to from bailiff Orsulya Ionescu (Tompa), accompanied by gendarmes, who serve him discover to go away.Orsulya is definitely extra sympathetic than her position suggests, having pulled strings to permit Glanetasu to remain for longer. Even now that he’s obliged to go away instantly, she permits him additional time to collect his belongings – in the meantime explaining to the gendarmes that an actual property agency plans to demolish the constructing and erect a boutique resort, the titular Kontinental.

However Orsulya’s act of generosity has stunning penalties – and, because the movie’s highlight turns to her, she goes into an agonised tailspin. Though she is formally cleared of guilt, this delicate, considerate girl can’t assist musing on questions of private duty and ethics, wherein, as a former regulation instructor, she has a selected curiosity. In the meantime, native press goal her as a ‘Hungarian ethnic’ harassing harmless Romanians – such tensions, stemming from Transylvanian historical past, nonetheless apparently a sore level within the area.

Different folks that Orsulya talks to disclose their very own prejudices and intolerance: an official lets slip his antisemitic views; her pal Daria (Oana Mardare) confesses to conflicted revulsion in direction of homeless individuals; whereas Orsulya’s mom (Annamaria Biluska) rankles at her liberalism and angrily accuses her of catching “the Romanian all the time complaining virus’”. Whereas her husband and youngsters head off to a Greek vacation, Orsulya meets up with Fred (a really droll Adonis Tanta), her ex-student in Roman Legislation.

Kontinental ’75 may be very a lot of a bit with the general Jude challenge – of taking the socio-cultural temperature of his nation and, past that, of twenty first century European  capitalism. One shock second of ribaldry aside, it’s neither as scabrous nor as encyclopedically scattershot as Do Not Anticipate…­  However it’s considered one of his extra discursively dense movies, notably within the long-take dialogue between Orsulya and Daria and within the later session with a suave however forbidding Orthodox priest (Serban Pavlu).

In the meantime the geography of Cluj and environs has a strongly concrete presence, with Marius Panduru’s impressively polished iPhone cinematography providing an in depth mapping of the town each in its urbanely presentable glory, historic and touristic, and within the drab performance of its extra mundane corners.