Radu Jude's latest film competes at the Locarno International Film Festival

Building on the success of his previous work, including the acclaimed pandemic satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” released in 2021, Radu Jude’s latest feature draws its title from a thought-provoking quote by Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec. Captivating audiences with its intriguing premise, the film boasts a runtime of 163 minutes, promising a deeply immersive cinematic experience.

“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (the title quotes an aphorism by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec) is a fragmentary film (part comedy, part road film) about work, exploitation, death, and the new gig economy. At the same time, it is dealing with the difficult problem of image production. All these are at the surface level, as they say, but the film only has this one level; it is a film of surfaces,” Jude said.

The 76 edition of the Locarno International Film Festival will take place from August 2-12, 2023, and the official competition selection includes 17 productions, as revealed by Giona Nazzaro, the artistic director of the Festival, during the press conference.

Radu Jude has previously been present at the Locarno Festival on various occasions. In 2016, his feature film “Scarred Hearts” competed in the official competition and received the Special Jury Prize. In 2017, his film “The Dead Nation” was screened in the Signs of Life section, and in 2021, his short film “Caricaturana” was featured in the Pardi di domani: Concorso Corti d’autore section.

Furthermore, Radu Jude’s films have recently been the subject of a monographic study titled “Beyond the New Romanian Cinema: Romanian Culture, History, and the Films of Radu Jude,” written by Andrei Gorzo and Veronica Lazăr. The book, written in English, was published by the Lucian Blaga University Press in Sibiu.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, and László Miske play the main roles, alongside the renowned German actress Nina Hoss. The cast also includes actors Katia Pascariu, Șerban Pavlu, Nicodim Ungureanu, Ioana Iacob, Claudia Ieremia, Zita Moldovan, Rodica Negrea, Adina Cristescu, and Sofia Nicolaescu. In a special appearance, filmmaker Uwe Boll (famous, among other things, for challenging his critics to prove him wrong in a boxing ring) makes an appearance.

“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is a 4 Proof Film production, co-produced with Paul Thiltges Distributions, Les Films d’Ici, Kinorama, and Micro Film, in association with Bord Cadre Films and Sovereign Films, with the support of the Romanian National Center for Cinema, Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages, Arte Cofinova/19, and Croatian Audiovisual Centre, in collaboration with Cineplexx Romania, EssenceMediacom, and Romanian Television.

In Romania, the film will be released in theaters on October 27, with distribution handled by Domestic Film, and international sales managed by Heretic.

About Radu Jude

As a director and screenwriter, Radu Jude gained recognition with his debut feature film, “The Happiest Girl in the World,” which won the CICAE Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009. In 2012, he premiered his film “Everybody in Our Family” in the Forum section at the Berlinale. His film “Aferim!” (2015) won the Silver Bear for Best Director. This was followed by “Scarred Hearts” (2016), which received two awards at Locarno IFF, and for which Radu Jude won the Best Director award at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. He also directed the documentary “The Dead Nation” (2017) and the feature film “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” (2018), which became the first Romanian film to win the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

In 2020, Radu Jude presented two feature films, “Uppercase Print” and “The Exit of the Trains,” at the Berlinale’s Forum section. A year later, his film “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” won the prestigious Golden Bear award. In the same year, his short film “Semiotic Plastic” was screened at the Venice Film Festival.

At the 2022 Berlinale, he competed with the short film “Memories of the Eastern Front,” co-directed with historian Adrian Cioflâncă.

His most recent short film, “The Potemkinists” (2022), premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and has been selected in over 20 international festivals. Currently, he is working on the montage film “8 Illustrated Scenes from the Ideal World,” co-directed with philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and the fiction film “Dracula Park.”

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