In this astonishing meta-fiction, Radu Jude continues his refreshing streak of scathingly hilarious, politically-charged social dramas as an underpaid production assistant works overtime on a commissioned safety video.
Review #2,704
Dir. Radu Jude
2023 | Romania | Drama, Comedy | 163 min | 1.85:1 | Romanian, English & other languages
M18 (passed clean) for sexual scene and nudity
Cast: Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrsan, Nina Hoss
Plot: Overworked and underpaid, Angela drives around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a ‘safety at work’ video commissioned by a multinational company. When one of the interviewees reveals the company’s liability in his accident, a scandal erupts.
Awards: Won Special Jury Prize (Locarno)
International Sales: Heretic
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Film Production Woes; Politically Incorrect; History & Politics; Social Commentary
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: General Arthouse
Viewed: Screener (as part of Singapore Film Society’s Showcase)
Spoilers: No
Radu Jude is fast becoming the cheekiest filmmaker working in world cinema today. The Romanian auteur pulls no punches and in his new Locarno award-winner, we see him deliver a superb follow-up to Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (to me the best film of 2021).
Once again, his approach is utterly refreshing, as he gives us a scathingly hilarious, politically-charged social drama that despite its lengthy runtime of nearly three hours is provocative and entertaining.
You won’t want to miss a minute of it, even when it becomes absurdly excessive, whether it is an extreme long take of a film crew trying to shoot a safety video or a slideshow of death-themed photos that doesn’t seem to end.
Jude also shot the film in both black-and-white and colour as two separate narrative threads are told independently, but because he is such a sly filmmaker, be prepared to expect the unexpected.
“It’s very important for everyone to wear the safety equipment.”
Ilinca Manolache is Angela, an overworked and underpaid production assistant who is tasked to interview folks for a safety video commissioned by a multinational company.
In what little free time that she has, she goes onto TikTok to spout politically incorrect and sexually explicit comments, hiding behind a filter. These are some of the funniest moments in 2023’s slate of films.
Jude intercuts Angela’s exploits in black-and-white with colour sequences that seem to have come from another universe—Ceausescu’s Romania in fact, in what appears to be footage from an old film of a female taxi driver.
Through the constructs of filmmaking and politics (both historical and contemporary), Jude finds a new way to reflect and satirise the post-Covid environment of chronic futility and nihilism. As our world careens toward Armageddon with one war after another, Jude asks us to take things in our stride.
Grade: A
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 
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