The work of irreverent, boundary-breaking Romanian director Radu Jude has not traditionally lent itself to easy explanations. It might have been possible to describe his newest film “Kontinental ‘25” without making mention of his overt influence, Roberto Rossellini’s “Europe ’51,” until the poster appears in the background of an extended shot at a movie theater bar. (Next to “We Live in Time,” no less.)
But since Jude insists on making the parallel explicit, it’s worth setting the stage with what the neorealist classic inspired in this story. Mercifully, firing up the Criterion Channel isn’t necessary as pre-movie homework (though scanning the Wikipedia summary wouldn’t be the worst idea). In Rossellini’s film, a personal tragedy transforms the life of Ingrid Bergman’s slightly shallow woman. The experience pushes her toward charity and, ultimately, sainthood.
Jude extrapolates the broad outline of Bergman’s on-screen journey to contemporary Romania as Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) also reels from a crisis close to home. In her capacity as a bailiff in the growing city of Cluj, she oversees the forced eviction of a homeless man squatting in a basement who opts to die by suicide rather than comply with her order. While she’s legally innocent of any crime in his death, Orsolya feels morally culpable for the untimely demise of a once-promising athlete.
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Orsolya deals with her guilt by talking it out with anyone who will listen, especially once she sends her husband and children away to let her process the events. Like the Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” for a secular world, the journey starts over a casual coffee chat with a friend who suggests compartmentalizing the grief through donating to a relevant charity. It continues with her Hungarian mother, an apologist for Viktor Orban’s proto-fascist regime who offers little bandage for her bleeding heart. Her spiral continues when she runs into an eccentric former student whose quirky philosophy opens her up spiritually and sexually.
Naturally, there’s nowhere else for this existential journey to end but in conversation with an Eastern Orthodox priest. From his introduction on screen, the snippy clergyman hardly presents as a paradigm of virtue – and his subsequent answers hardly seem holy. Be it dismissing the idea of having sympathy for the homeless man (because his suicide disrupted God’s control over life) or downplaying her contrition (because exaggeration of her guilt is a sin), it’s clear that Jude’s film sees no relief or rescue from religion.
That irresolute resolution sums up the philosophy of “Kontinental ’25,” an undeniably captivating parable that stops just short of being revelatory. Orsolya seeks to make herself a tragic figure, but there’s no fall from grace possible in a world that has replaced the divine arbiters of fate with the cold logic of the market. Even the film’s title speaks to the dislodging of any kind of shared identity or project as the Europe of Rossellini’s film gives way to the capitalist venture in Jude’s: the Kontinental Hotel backed by French money.
Though tinged with Jude’s trademark humor, “Kontinental ‘25” feels like an unusually bleak cry of despair. The director frequently makes films on extremely tight turnarounds, but the roughly four months between production and the premiere of this project give it a more unprocessed feeling. Given how directly it interfaces with current events like Romania’s recent presidential election and Putin’s ongoing threat to Eastern Europe, the year in its title feels like an expiration date for the commentary. Shooting the film on an iPhone mirrors the thematic immediacy – and perhaps a cheeky disposability – in the image.
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Despite Jude’s international profile, this may also just be more of a film for Romanian audiences as it delves into more local shadings. His bustling interstitials in films like “Bad Luck Banging (or Loony Porn” and “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” give way to more subdued, still tableaus of Cluj and Florești, the suburban community where Orsolya escapes the urban noise. Shadings of how the country has incorporated Transylvania within its borders and welcomed Hungarian immigrants like Orsolya into its populace cloak the film in Romanian regionalism. “Kontinental ‘25” does not feel quite as exportable as Jude’s recent work; at the very least, he refuses to cheat out for an international crowd.
Jude has cemented his place as a major international filmmaker by looking forward. He has fearlessly charged forward with an aesthetic that reflects the way audiences consume audiovisual content in the digital era. But with “Kontinental ’25,” he looks backward – and the film feels like a more muted version of his style as a result. This lacks the zest and dynamism of Jude’s more subversive output, though even a minor work from a major filmmaker still manages to thrill and tantalize. [B-]