Kontinental '25

Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj-Napoca, the largest city in Transylvania, where real estate developers call the shots. When she's tasked with evicting a homeless man to make way for a luxury hotel, she spirals into a moral crisis. In Kontinental '25, it's not vampires but rampant (state) capitalism, nationalism, and a deepening housing crisis that haunt the land. Director Radu Jude, who was already in the region working on a film about the Dracula legend, shot this "side project" in just ten days, armed with only and iPhone and natural light. The fact that he still managed to win the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlinale says it all. Jude makes films as if the end of the world is just around the corner. And we probably shouldn't expect too much from the apocalypse (see: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, FFG2023). The story and title of Kontinental '25 are loosely inspired by Roberto Rossellini's Europe '51 - keep an eye out for the poster hanging in a café.