Radu Jude’s Hungarian protagonist Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) lives close to the historic Transylvanian metropolis of Cluj, which is being overrun by tech-driven gentrification. Orsolya means effectively, actually, however her job as a bailiff requires her to evict a homeless man occupying the boiler room of a constructing set to be changed into a luxurious resort. Within the 20-minute window he’s given to collect his belongings, the person commits suicide; and naturally, Orsolya is plagued with guilt. Struggling to atone and determined to course of a disaster of conscience, she seeks out faith, intercourse, philanthropy, zen philosophy… However is it her fault if she was simply doing her job? Is it attainable to be absolved in a world that sustains us by making us complicit, at the same time as we dogpaddle within the wastewaters of so-called progress?
Shot with iPhone cameras (as a result of it’s what we deserve) over 10 days, Kontinental ’25 is extra of a facet mission for the Romanian provocateur, whose different latest work operates on a extra epic scale, however that doesn’t minimise any of the movie’s affect. It’s a movie that’s firmly grounded within the geopolitical specificity of Cluj, exploring ethnic tensions, financial inequalities, legacies of totalitarianism, the brutality of capitalism and the destructiveness of actual property – but it’s by this native context that Jude will get to dig deep into the contradictions of our globalised, neoliberal world because the all-pervasive cultural and ethical rot continues to unfold.
