THE STORY – 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.
THE CAST – Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare & Șerban Pavlu
THE TEAM – Radu Jude (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 109 Minutes
Radu Jude’s films have always been concerned with portraying the world around us in direct and often uncomfortable ways, and while “Kontinental ’25” strays away from his frequently experimental style, its dedication to holding a mirror up to contemporary society is no less present or engaging. Following a distressed social worker whose world is turned upside-down after a homeless man commits suicide on her watch, “Kontinental ’25” explores issues as topical and arresting as generational racism, growing rates of unemployment and homelessness, and global conflicts such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But Jude’s film doesn’t just reflect these concepts from a distance but instead dissects them with care and intricacy, asking the critical question of how we value human lives based on their social standing.
The sequence that soon reveals itself to be “Kontinental ’25’s” quasi-prologue follows a homeless man named Ion (Gabriel Spahiu) as he goes about his daily life – collecting litter from the streets and asking for money from anybody who will listen. As he becomes increasingly invisible to those around him, and the bailiffs arrive to evict him from the boiler room he’s been squatting in, Ion is eventually driven to suicide. The film then switches perspectives to Eszter Tompa’s protagonist, Orsolya – one of the social workers who ordered his eviction. From here, Radu Jude’s biting screenplay explores the guilt and shame that Orsolya feels over Ion’s death and uses her ethical ruminations to discuss many other social issues that are relevant today.
The plot takes somewhat of a backseat in “Kontinental ’25,” using the first half hour to establish the players on this cinematic stage and then spending the remaining runtime watching them go about their daily business. Radu Jude is much less concerned with what happens to his characters and more interested in the discussions they have along the way. While this can be slightly jarring for those expecting a more traditional and accessible story, it ultimately works very well, given how intrinsically political this story is. The filmmaker uses these complex figures as mouthpieces to discuss rich, philosophical questions – leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions as a distant observer of these discussions.
Jude’s filmmaking style is equally unique, making use of a completely static camera in almost every scene. This contributes strongly to the film’s slice-of-life atmosphere, allowing the audience to feel like a motionless observer of these conversations and not an audience member watching a constructed piece of fiction. The film avoids any fancy camera tricks or unconventional editing decisions, knowing that these can distract audiences from the realism of what they’re watching. Instead, the only details to pay attention to beyond the depth of Jude’s script are the background noises of a fountain trickling or music playing from a restaurant down the road. It’s a fierce dedication to naturalism rarely seen from such prolific directors, but it works excellently.
However, this methodical pacing and dismissal of narrative progression can be challenging to engage with for the entire runtime. Each scene works in isolation, but there’s a lingering sense that “Kontinental ’25” feels more like a string of lifelike tableaus than a feature-length narrative film. Jude also grapples with so many important ideas that sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of them all, and just when it feels like he’s fully delving into one part of his social commentary, the next scene explores something totally different. Perhaps a more focused and singular vision would’ve been more effective for “Kontinental ’25” instead of the sprawling and scattered themes that Radu Jude opts for.
Jude’s commitment to portraying these issues without metaphor or narrative cushioning is one of “Kontinental ’25’s” most admirable qualities, even if it can also be alienating at points. Where less confident filmmakers may opt for allegory or subtext to explore these ideas, Jude refuses to sugarcoat his message. This approach is not only brave but necessary; by not disguising these social critiques or burying them beneath the surface of the story, Jude ensures that the weight of these injustices is truly felt. This unfiltered realism, however, comes at a cost. “Kontinental ’25’s” slow, meandering pace may prove frustrating for some audiences as it often comes across as lost or directionless.
“Kontinental ’25” is structured to feel unscripted and raw, as though the camera has been dropped into these characters’ lives with little interference – so naturally, it’s not always that interesting. Life doesn’t come with a sharp, thrice-refined screenplay, so Jude creates the impression that “Kontinental ’25” doesn’t either. It’s a demanding approach to storytelling, but one that perfectly aligns with his intention to make audiences grapple with the world around them rather than passively consume a neatly packaged story.
