Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Radu Jude
Starring: Eszter Tompa, Gabriel Spahiu, Adonis Tanța, Oana Mardare, Șerban Pavlu
In Roberto Rossellini's Europe '51, Ingrid Bergman played the wife of an industrialist who commits herself to helping the needy in order to assuage the guilt she feels around the death of her son. With Kontinental '25, Radu Jude has reworked the structure of Rossellini's film as a scabrous attack on the indifference of modern Romanian society. Unlike Bergman, the guilt-ridden protagonist of Jude's film isn't seeking redemption through good deeds but rather hopes to be given an easier way out through the reassurance of others that she has nothing to feel guilty about.
Jude's film opens with an extended wordless sequence that follows Ion (Gabriel Spahiu), a homeless man who was once an athlete who represented his country on the world stage. We watch as Ion spends his day gathering recyclable rubbish, presumably with the intent of turning it into enough to pay for a scrap of food. Ion trudges through an indifferent world, begging strangers to give him some work in their homes, or failing that, outright asking for cash. At the end of the day he arrives at his makeshift "home", a basement from which he has officially been evicted.
The bailiff in charge of removing Ion is Orsolya (Eszter Tompa), a former Law professor who now finds herself in a job that clashes with her humanity. Orsolya has tried to give Ion a fair shot, offering to help him find a shelter and negotiating with the property owner to allow him an extra month in the basement. After giving him 20 minutes to gather his essentials, Orsolya is shocked when she returns to the basement and finds Ion has strangled himself to death.
The ensuing film has an episodic structure that sees Orsolya engage in lengthy conversations with various characters in which she confesses her guilt but fails to find a satisfying response. The movie plays like one long punchline in which Orsolya's pleas for forgiveness continually fall on deaf ears as everyone she speaks with is a narcissist who spins the conversation around to their own thoughts and opinions. Orsolya's boss can't understand why she would care about a homeless man, mocking her as a second rate version of "that guy from Schindler's List." Her husband just nods along, as husbands are wont to do, hoping to cheer her up for some bedroom action. A friend boasts about her charity donations. Orsolya's ethnic-Hungarian mother turns the conversation around to her admiration of Hungary's strongman leader Viktor Orban, resulting in a politically charged argument between mother and daughter. A former student of Orsolya's responds to her concerns with a rambling series of comic anecdotes about zen masters. Even Orsolya's priest refuses to indulge her guilt, reminding her of the church's despicable attitude to suicide.
The anarchic energy of Jude's most recent films is replaced here with a laidback approach. Shot in 10 days while Jude was preparing his upcoming Dracula film, Kontinental '25 plays out in a series of lengthy two-shots, some of which appear to have been shot on the fly with members of the public staring into the lens as they pass by in the background. With his lo-fi setup, Jude appears to take inspiration from the prolific Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, particularly in a scene that sees Orsolya and her former pupil get inebriated in a downtown bar. The rambling, directionless nature of some of the philosophical and theological conversations echo those found in the films of Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
There are a few laugh out loud moments here, though you might feel some guilt yourself for laughing at the desperation on screen. But some of it is so absurd, if all too real, that you can't help but laugh. Conversations are interrupted by remote control cars and robot dogs, and a supremely tacky dinosaur park filled with animatronic creatures provides the surreal backdrop for a couple of scenes. By the time the punchline arrives in a caustic montage that contrasts shiny but soulless new property developments with crumbling tenements, any grin you might have earlier had will be wiped from your face as Jude reminds us that life in 21st century Romania might be absurd, but it's no joke.
Kontinental '25 is in UK/ROI cinemas from October 31st.
