Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii

Borrowing its title from a maxim by the Polish poet Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Radu Jude’s latest film is a bitter, fragmented and often bizarrely funny critique of contemporary Romania’s embrace of free market capitalism.

It follows Angela, a harassed and sleep-deprived production assistant for a multinational film company, as she frantically drives around Bucharest, using her smartphone to simultaneously audition disabled people for an upcoming role and to post clips posing as the infamous social media misogynist, Andrew Tate.

Sampling clips from the Ceaușescu-era 1981 film Angela Moves On in which actress Dorina Lazar stars as a taxi driver who finds herself in a relationship with one of her passengers, Jude creates a continuum between the two protagonists and between two moments in the history of Romania. (BH)