Who feels guilty about the violence of gentrification?

AfterAn unlucky hookup or crazy porn and the masterful Don't expect too much from the end of the worldRadu Jude concludes a sort of (perhaps unintentional?) film trilogy that captures, like no other current film, the drift of contemporary Europe through the tribulations of a female protagonist. With a title that alludes to Europe '51Like Roberto Rossellini's film about the spiritual crisis of a mother (Ingrid Bergman) who loses her son in postwar Italy, the Romanian filmmaker also presents a woman, Orsolya (the magnificent Eszter Tompa), tormented by the conflict caused by the suicide of a homeless man during an eviction.

The protagonist grapples with her guilt by sharing it in a series of long conversations that offer her different perspectives, from the legal to the religious, including the moral and even the nationalist. Set in Cluj, currently Romania's most promising city, Jude conceives Continental '25 It also serves as an audiovisual essay on urban transformations and the invisible forms of violence they foster. And it transforms his country into a concentrated example of European contradictions and ills. With admirable austerity (the film was shot on an iPhone) and his characteristic sense of satire, more restrained here, Jude delivers a film of profound moral reflection, presented in a tone far removed from preaching.