Radu Jude has become the enfant terrible of Romanian film since he won the director's Silver Bear for "Aferim" (2015), a Western of sorts which was indeed highly innovative and poignantly satirical. He has become a preacher of social criticism, lashing out against Romanian antisemitism, xenophobia, nationalist tendencies and now misogyny. This film won the Golden Bear, as did the equally provocative and experimental "Touch me not" by Adina Pintilie in 2018. Pintilie was part of the jury which awarded the prize, adding to the controversy of crowning a film made on EU film fund money that very few Romanians would be willing to see. Jude isn't wrong with his observations - he just presents them in a deliberately awkward fashion, practically forcing the viewer into a hostile reaction.
Splitting the film in three different chapters doesn't help. In the first installment - after an explicit private sex tape-, we see the main character shopping in CoVid-struck Bucharest and mentioning on the phone that the sex tape has been leaked, for which she has been called to a PTA meeting that night. There isn't any narrative purpose, all we see is construction sites, ads, SUV drivers losing their temper. Then follows an equally pointless dictionary of sorts, with situational shots Jude deems representative of Romanian society. At last, the story resumes with the PTA meeting, where the woman is heavily accused of debauchery and corruption of youth, but steadfastly defends herself. Ultimately there are three increasingly bizarre conclusions.
As you can see from the description, this is a film that almost asks you not to watch it, which is a shame because some of its statements are truly impressive. For instance, in the "dictionary" the term "aborigeni" is translated as "persons of little worth who burden the soil of newly discovered countries"- ouch, bull's eye. There is shocking cell phone footage of a Romani woman hit by a bus driver with a cane to prevent her from boarding, a shocking reminder how real racist hatred still is in my homeland. And during the PTA confrontation, a parent apologizes for a racist slur against gypsies to a present African, who replies "it's OK, I know I'm not meant". These hard and important jabs are however drowned in a sea of obscenities. Like to many cooks spoil the soup, too many issues spoil this film.
Splitting the film in three different chapters doesn't help. In the first installment - after an explicit private sex tape-, we see the main character shopping in CoVid-struck Bucharest and mentioning on the phone that the sex tape has been leaked, for which she has been called to a PTA meeting that night. There isn't any narrative purpose, all we see is construction sites, ads, SUV drivers losing their temper. Then follows an equally pointless dictionary of sorts, with situational shots Jude deems representative of Romanian society. At last, the story resumes with the PTA meeting, where the woman is heavily accused of debauchery and corruption of youth, but steadfastly defends herself. Ultimately there are three increasingly bizarre conclusions.
As you can see from the description, this is a film that almost asks you not to watch it, which is a shame because some of its statements are truly impressive. For instance, in the "dictionary" the term "aborigeni" is translated as "persons of little worth who burden the soil of newly discovered countries"- ouch, bull's eye. There is shocking cell phone footage of a Romani woman hit by a bus driver with a cane to prevent her from boarding, a shocking reminder how real racist hatred still is in my homeland. And during the PTA confrontation, a parent apologizes for a racist slur against gypsies to a present African, who replies "it's OK, I know I'm not meant". These hard and important jabs are however drowned in a sea of obscenities. Like to many cooks spoil the soup, too many issues spoil this film.