Radu Jude’s Hungarian protagonist Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) lives near the historic Transylvanian city of Cluj, which is being overrun by tech-driven gentrification. Orsolya means well, really, but her job as abailiff requires her to evict ahomeless man occupying the boiler room of abuilding set to be turned into aluxury hotel. In the 20-minute window he’s given to gather his belongings, the man commits suicide; and naturally, Orsolya is plagued with guilt. Struggling to atone and desperate to process acrisis of conscience, she seeks out religion, sex, philanthropy, zen philosophy… But is it her fault if she was just doing her job? Is it possible to be absolved in aworld that sustains us by making us complicit, even as we dogpaddle in the wastewaters of so-called progress?
Shot with iPhone cameras (because it’s what we deserve) over 10days, Kontinental ’25 is more of aside project for the Romanian provocateur, whose other recent work operates on amore epic scale, but that doesn’t minimise any of the film’s impact. It’s afilm that is firmly grounded in the geopolitical specificity of Cluj, exploring ethnic tensions, economic inequalities, legacies of totalitarianism, the brutality of capitalism and the destructiveness of real estate – yet it’s through this local context that Jude gets to dig deep into the contradictions of our globalised, neoliberal world as the all-pervasive cultural and moral rot continues to spread.
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