Still riding the momentum of “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” and with Martin Scorsese now among his more vocal admirers, filmmaker Radu Jude is premiering not one, but two new films in 2025.
The first, “Kontinental ’25,” premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it earned Jude the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. The second, simply titled “Dracula,” is slated to bow in the coming days at Locarno.
Both films were shot on smartphones, a decision born not out of aesthetic affectation but pure financial necessity. No budget? No problem.
Up next on the ever-growing slate of one of Europe’s most vital provocateurs? A “Frankenstein” adaptation, starring Sebastian Stan. I’m not trolling you. That’s what he confirmed to Cultura la dubă.
I had the idea to develop a story that would begin with the reality of CIA black sites on Romanian soil from 20 years ago, and then merge that with another cinematic myth—the Frankenstein monster. I pitched it to Sebastian, and he said yes. So I’ve started writing the script, but it’ll take some time.
If that concept sounds wild, welcome to the world of Radu Jude.
The filmmaker first hit international recognition with “Aferim!” (2015), a Romanian New Wave standout that earned him a Silver Bear at Berlinale. However, it was 2021’s “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” a film that waged war on hypocrisy, censorship, and moral posturing during the COVID era, that won him the Golden Bear and upped his stock.
Scorsese himself sang Jude’s praises in December:
There’s this guy named Radu Jude… He’s something else. Especially Aferim!, which he shot in black and white, and another one that I’m sure isn’t to everyone’s taste, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. That one is shocking—it takes political content, cinema, morality, immorality, throws it all on screen, then shatters it into a thousand pieces, and suddenly, you see the world differently.
Jude’s cinema isn’t for everyone. It isn’t trying to be. But for those tuned into its wavelength, it’s among the most exciting, politically urgent, and darkly funny work being made today.