Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) is a bailiff in Cluj, Transylvania, who evicts a homeless man from a building’s basement, only for tragedy to strike shortly afterward. Stricken with guilt, Orsolya
spirals into a moral crisis, desperately seeking absolution from whoever will provide it: a friend, her mother, a priest, and even a former student turned delivery cyclist. Despite their reassurances, she remains consumed by an unresolved sense of guilt and confusion. The latest from Radu Jude sees the prolific Romanian provocateur take the moral temperature of his country and find it wanting. Kontinental ‘25 is of a piece with his recent Do Not Expect Too Much from The End of The World, and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Brainy, bawdy, funny, and wholly unpredictable, the film offers further evidence that Jude is one of Europe’s most exciting filmmakers.

Notes by David O’Mahony