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Kontinental '25

Competition 2025
© Raluca Munteanu
Cluj, Transylvania. After being driven from his shelter in a house cellar, a homeless man commits suicide. Orsolya, the bailiff who carried out the eviction, is impelled to make various attempts to address her feelings of guilt. Using a mixture of drama and comedy, topics as diverse as the housing crisis, post-socialist economics, nationalism and the power of language to maintain social status are dissected with a sharp, absurdist scalpel, in a movie-literate narrative that plays partly as a homage to Rossellini’s Europa ’51 – not least in the modesty of this independent, low-budget production’s means. But while in Rossellini’s film a woman’s crisis of conscience leads to meaningful activity, here the protagonist facing the dilemma is unable to find anybody to understand her and becomes increasingly desperate for external reassurance and validation, in a manner that would be easy to condemn if Orsolya’s moral relativism were not such an uncomfortably accurate reflection of a modern-day malaise from which few of us are wholly immune.
by Radu Jude (Director, Screenplay)
with Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare, Șerban Pavlu, Annamária Biluska, Ilinca Manolache Romania 2025 Romanian, Hungarian, German 109' Colour World premiere

With

  • Eszter Tompa (Orsolya)
  • Gabriel Spahiu (Ion)
  • Adonis Tanța (Fred)
  • Oana Mardare (Dorina)
  • Șerban Pavlu (Priest Șerban)
  • Annamária Biluska (Orsolya’s mother)
  • Ilinca Manolache (Irina)

Crew

Director Radu Jude
Screenplay Radu Jude
Cinematography Marius Panduru
Editing Cătălin Cristuțiu
Sound Design Cristian Ștefănescu
Production Design Andreea Popa
Casting Dan Ursu
Producers Alexandru Teodorescu, Rodrigo Teixeira
Executive Producer Ramona Grama

Produced by

Saga Film

World Sales

Luxbox

Photos

Press Conference

Red Carpet

Radu Jude

Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1977. After taking a film degree at the city’s Media University, he began working as an assistant director before directing his first short film in 2006. His debut feature The Happiest Girl in the World screened in the Forum and received worldwide attention. He won the Silver Bear for Best Director with Aferim! at the 2015 Berlinale. His films Uppercase Print and The Exit of the Trains premiered in the Forum. In 2021, he won the Golden Bear with Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn and was a member of the International Jury of the Berlinale in 2023.

Filmography

2006 Lampa cu caciula (The Tube with a Hat); short film 2009 Cea mai fericită fată din lume (The Happiest Girl in the World) 2012 Toată lumea din familia noastra (Everybody in Our Family) 2015 Aferim! 2016 Inimi cicatrizate (Scarred Hearts) 2018 Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari (I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians) 2020 Tipografic majuscul (Uppercase Print) · Ieşirea trenurilor din gară (The Exit of the Trains); co-director: Adrian Cioflâncă 2021 Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn) 2020 The Potemkinists (Potemkinistii); short film 2023 Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World) 2024 Sleep #2 · Opt Ilustrate din lumea ideală (Eight Postcards from Utopia); co-director: Christian Ferencz-Flatz 2025 Kontinental '25

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025