Do not expect too much from the end of the world

Original title: Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii

Directed by: Radu Jude

Country: Romania

Length: 163 min.

Year: 2023

Premiere: Locarno Film Festival 2023

Availability: MUBI 

SPECIAL JURY AWARD - LOCARNO 2023 

Synopsis: film industry worker Angela drives through the streets of Bucharest for her work on a safety warning video for a company.

RATING: 4.5/5

REVIEW by Viktor Toth (in occasion of its screening at Trieste Film Festival 2024)

The title is a warning: it clearly points out immediately to not expect too much. And therefore, for the epic length of the film (as long as its title) and its deliberate tediousness, as it stretches its pacing; it proceeds to follow Angelica (Ilinca Manolache) through one day as she drives through the infinte errands she is given as a casting director/PR for a safety warning video commissioned by a west european company.

Jude, as usual, weighs in through satyre and bitter laughter on countless topics about contemporary romanian society: the exploitation by western multinationals, the commercialisation of everything - including burial. Angelica's fares are doubled by a continous parallel with Lucian Bratu's film "Angela merge mai departe", which centered on a woman taxi driver, a comparison that serves to Jude to outline aspects concerning social norms, as well as to delineate consequences in the present of the mentality of the Ceausescu era.

The two main actors of the 1981 film appear at their current age as
representations of their generation, and as László Miske is hungarian, he is an embodiment of the pro-Orban hungarian minority in transilvania.

If that was not enough, a new target of Jude's filmography is none other than Andrew Tate. Angelica, as a hobby, fashions herself as an influencer using a filter to change her voice and appearance into that of Bobita, a male Tate-esque character that uses the foulest and most sexist tropes possible, a caricature of Tate himself, who does live in Romania. Jude has always seemed the perfect candidate for this neccessary address, and he proved to be very much up to it.

Unlike in other Jude films, in Do not expect too much from the end of the
world the social criticism is subtler, often hinted at in loose conversations or
visual cues but not as evident as it has been in some of his latter films. The film
presents itself as an image of the apocalypse, but the end of the world lays
in the absurdity of society. Angelica sometimes hints at the apocalyptic
subtone, for example when he tells a short story from a porn set, suggesting
that perhaps the end of the world is to be found in the increased consumerism.
The iconic clock, with the text "it's later than you expect", further enforces
the idea that the end of the world has already happened, or it is happening
right now. The Black and White could also be a suggestion of the sorts, as it is
often a choice that codifies a visual information linked to the past - as if, the film
is set in a contemporary setting that is "post-apocalyptic".

The first feature film by Radu Jude, The Happiest Girl in the World, was centered on the shooting of a television ad in which fiction progressively imposed itself over reality. The final 20-30 minutes of Do not expect too much from the end of the world are a fixed, uncut sequence of the crew shooting the safety warning video, and do a similar operation in presenting how the original declaration of the testimonial - a paralysed worker - is progressively twisted until his voice is literally removed. The sequence encompasses countless parallels and citations, presenting itself as a literal daemonology of cinema in function of its role as a form of advertisement, tracking back its history all the way to the Lumières.

The newest film of Jude is a dense and long work, and it would be true to see it as a sum of all of his very multifaceted filmography: there's experimentalism, there is bitter satyre and non-compromise, there is the use of archivial footage in function of a new interpretation.
The film cab be analysed, discussed and unpacked under so many aspects that it rightfully can be defined as one of the best films of 2023.

Originally published on the instagram page on January 20th, 2024.

REVIEW written by Will Rowan (in occasion of the Locarno 2023 premiere)

Radu Jude presents obliteration not as a single event, but as a creeping inevitability. In his latest film, he faces down the absurdities of the gig economy, national and personal exploitation, and all the contradictions that allow both to continue. Do Not Expect Too Much from The End of The World hits like a freight train.

Production assistant Angela (Ilinca Manolache) sits at the heart of the absurdity as she pounds the streets of Bucharest to pull together a workplace safety video for a multinational company. It’s in this fraught fast-moving environment that we’re introduced to her online alter-ego Bobita - a satirical figure mocking the likes of misogynist and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate. This inclusion is brash and provocative while avoided the easy pitfalls of enablement. It’s a fine line that Jude nails. Bobita in all her hate reinforces the main theme of exploitation, acting as a release valve for the stresses of Angela’s ridiculous gig economy life.

Angela is overworked, underpaid, and soon working under false pretences. This project isn’t about protecting workers, it’s about exploiting them under the guise of corporate benevolence. Manolache is fantastic, both as she drives the streets of Bucharest and as her alter-ego Bobita. Her transitions to Bobita, which begin by feeling like whiplash, soon make sense in the absurdity of her daily life. Jude skilfully packages Tate and those like him as part of a culture of exploitation and that slow inevitable end of the world.

As a political satire there are so many ways Jude’s latest film could fall apart. It’s a testament to his work that Jude uses these contradictions to critique the conditions of capitalism that both give rise to them and require them to sustain itself. He punches up, hard, rather than placating the court.

Jude captures a sense of unreality that few manage to do so well. It’s that gnawing feeling of seeing ‘relatable’ brands replying on social media, toothless satire that accepts the present as inevitable, or the flickering filter Angela uses to become Bobita. When this filter drops, the bald and bushy browed Bobita dissipates to reveal Angela. It’s these spaces between persona and person, reality and unreality where Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of The World excels. Radu Jude again shows himself to be a radical political filmmaker able to tackle the present without the benefit of hindsight.

Originally published on the instagram page on August 19th, 2023.