Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Watch the trailer After a brief hiatus, Cinema Niche will return in February 2024 with a new film by one of the most original voices in Romanian cinema. The film will be preceded by a foreword by philosopher Csaba Jaksa, editor of új szem.
On the surface, the film follows the day in Bucharest of an underpaid and overworked production assistant who makes casting videos of various factory accident victims so that the German company manager can choose the most unfortunate of them for a preventative video, while from time to time making macho parody Tiktok videos in the style of Andrew Tate, accused of rape and human trafficking. In fact, we could go on for pages describing the film's story, cinematic language and shocking timeliness for a feature film that usually takes years to make, and it would still be full of surprises for anyone who sat through it.
As a teaser, here are a few arguments for lovers of year-end top lists and festival awards: the film has been replaced by Cahiers du Cinema, Sight & Sound, John Waters, Vanity Fair's annual list of this year's favourites, was awarded the Special Jury Prize in Locarno, and received an award for its leading actress Ilinca Manolache in Chicago, It will also be the fourth film by Radu Jude to be nominated by Romania for the Oscar in the Best International Film category, after Aferim, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.
With dozens of major festival successes to his name, including Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Locarno and Sundance, Radu Jude is undoubtedly one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Romanian cinema. He is the creator of a number of provocative films that turn social expectations on their head, often exploring the complex interrelations between past and present, fact and fiction, and political memory, using the dark chapters of his country's history as a medium. Radu Jude, who won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2021 with Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, will return in 2023 with a sharp, acerbic satire that won the Critics' Grand Prix at the Locarno Film Festival.