Radu Jude Returns to Wry Social Commentary, Absurd ‘Human Comedy’ in Berlin Golden Bear Contender ‘Kontinental ‘25’

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Four years after winning the Golden Bear for his irreverent satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” Romanian auteur Radu Jude returns to the Berlinale with his latest feature, “Kontinental ’25,” which premieres Feb.

19 in the festival’s main competition. The film follows a bailiff, Orsolya (Eszter Tompa), who’s plunged into a moral crisis after a homeless man she’s trying to evict commits suicide.

Struggling with a profound sense of guilt, she looks for ways to ease her troubled conscience, even as she grows increasingly desperate for external reassurance and validation.

Easier said than done. As you might expect from one of world cinema’s leading provocateurs, Orsolya’s round-about search for redemption detours toward Jude’s larger concerns, taking in (but hardly limited to) moral relativism, post-socialist economics, nationalism and the Romanian housing crisis.