Orsolya (Ester Tompa) is a bailiff in Cluj, Transylvania, Romania. In the process of evicting a homeless man, a squatter, he commits suicide by strangling himself with a wire affixed to a radiator. Despite Orsolya making every effort to accommodate the squatter it ends with his suicide. Orsolya had given him, out of compassion an extra twenty minutes to pack up and even provided him with a van to move to a homeless shelter. Ironically her compassion evidenced by that extra twenty minutes enabled the homeless man to strangle himself.
Orsolya is traumatized by the gruesome death scene seeking relief by repeating the events to countless people with all agreeing she has no legal or moral responsibility despite some of the sensationalist press fingering her as the cause of the suicide. Unanimous compassion and non culpability in Orsolya’s favour fail to ameliorate her deepening guilt driving her to desperation that neither a priest, colleagues, husband, casual sex or alcohol can assuage.
Jude launches a panoply of social commentary emanating from characters and images in his film including;
- A corrupt real estate development business
- Racist and anti-Semitic police
- Slanderous and sensationalist media
- Ethnic and nationalist issues particularly concerning Romanians, the Hungarian minority in Transylvania and the Roma people
- Homelessness
- Disrespect towards religion
- Empty sloganeering of politicians
Against numerous panoramic shots of Cluj’s historic architecture and monuments there are numerous shots of new and under construction apartment blocs leading me to a possible symbolic conclusion that the “new Non-Communist Romania” socially and economically may not be so superior to the old Communist Romania with its brutalist apartment bloc architecture.
With all the social, political and economic commentary and the two scenes shot at a dinosaur walking trail is Jude going so far as to say humanity is heading towards moral extinction that neither a chequebook or guilt can prevent.
A thinking person’s movie that starts sliding off the rails of easily understandable comprehension at the point of Orsolya encountering her former student turned delivery boy and her long conversation with Father Serban (Serban Pavlu).
Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9umCIsc-zc
Radu Jude is both the writer and the director.
Theatrical release in Canada was 23April2026.
RKS EUROPEAN FILM Rating: 66/100.
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