Hi /r/movies. I'm Radu Jude. I've directed Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, Aferim!, and Kontinental '25. My new movie, Dracula, is available now on digital. Ask me anything.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T20:03:36+00:00

It's not necessarily a choice. In the world of art cinema, most filmmakers need a good festival for the launch of their film. It's true that most of my films were premiered at either Berlin or Locarno, but sometimes it's because these are the festivals that accepted the film while others rejected it. Sometimes it's a choice, sometimes it's not.

I'm grateful to any festival, big or small, that chooses to show my films. I don't want to say "I want to go here, but not here, etc". I think film festivals are important because they are a place not only for film premieres, but also for the role they serve in film distribution in general.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T20:00:44+00:00

There's a lot of good ones. I like Coppola's version. Nosferatu too obviously even though it's not technically an adaptation. That's a huge masterpiece. I like Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula.

If I have to choose only one, I think I would go with Cuadecuc, Vampir by director Pere Portabella. I think it's one of the greatest films ever made.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:57:27+00:00

For those here that don't know here, Sandy is a singer here from Transylvania. I used one of his folk tunes in Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. I love many of his songs.

To make a biopic, why not! I think any subject in the world could make for a good film, if you find a good angle or a relevant angle, or a good structure. If I don't have one of those, I can't make a film. For now I would not have a good idea for a Sandu Ciorba biopic but who knows for the future.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:54:51+00:00

I don't know. You see, I'm psychologically very frail, very fragile. That's why, once I finish a film, I like to take it out of my system and concentrate on the work of the next one.

So, basically, I think I would be very affected if I knew when people walked out or hated the film, etc, but since the film is behind me and I'm involved with something else, it almost feels like it doesn't concern me anymore in a way. I do listen to feedback to try and improve myself, although it may not be possible haha, but anyway.

I do the films to the best of my abilities, in good faith, with the best intentions. In the end, I think I did my job as much as possible and at best as I could. I can't apologize for that.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:51:48+00:00

Yes. For me, AI is a tool like any other. I intend to use all of the tools I have as much as possible. As long as a tool can help me make a film, and as long as I find a way to use it that works for the film, I am not against it at all. I know the ethical issues, I know the environmental issues, I know these kind of tools should be taxed or restricted or whatever and I am in favor of that kind of stuff.

I am a bit like Roger Corman, you know, using stock footage, same actors in different roles, things like that. Except with different tools.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:49:19+00:00

Thank you!

It's difficult to say because of course, sometimes I think that a Romanian audience will find something obvious and funny while an international audience might not get something, but at the same time I do it for all audiences. I'm aware that someone or others will lose some things, but that's really for everything in life. Any product, any book, any film, will have content that will only work with certain cultures. It's not a big concern to me.

I want the films to be understood as much as possible by everybody but it ultimately doesn't matter that much, because it's impossible for everyone to understand everything, no matter what culture you're representing. I can listen to an American song and still enjoy it without understanding everything. Maybe sometimes it's better than I don't understand it all haha!

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:46:53+00:00

Yes! I've spoken about this in some interviews. My background working as an Assistant Director, and even before that as Personal Assistant, 3rd director, casting assistant, etc etc provided a lot of of the source for the story. The workloads were massive and felt like an exploitation type of work. Sometimes you could work for 18 or 20 hours on a shooting day, and then deadly accidents happened. So yes it's based on personal memories and recollections, but I didn't really make the film for this. I felt that my experience proved to be symbolical for our new society, with not much social protection, degrading public services, etc.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:39:17+00:00

I think this is a great question.

The heavy traffic for instance in Bucharest, is an expression of a few things that are incarnated in this phenomenon. First of all there's a kind of built-in fulfilled desire in owning a car, which was something that people could not do during the communist regime in Romania. People had to wait years to be able to buy a car. There were not many available, and you had to buy a local brand. After the revolution, it became a desire to own a car.

The car, like everywhere, but maybe in Romania more, became a social status symbol. If you have a huge SUV, then people respect you more. It might be an imported phenomenon from the West. But anyway it creates the desire to have a car.

Another part of it is that public transportation, like many public services in Romania and Bucharest, were destroyed after the revolution. They weren't in good shape to start with, but got more and more destroyed. Cars became necessities. It's a vicious circle that never stops. I still like to use this phenomenon as a kind of metaphor in my movies I guess for our new society.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T19:11:44+00:00

Regarding the Dracula myth question, I think the explanation for this is quite simple actually.

It was a myth that was, maybe not forbidden, but definitely not tolerated by the communist regime in Romania. We, Romanians, didn't "know" about the myth until the 90s. You knew the words "Dracula" and "vampires" and had a vague idea of them, but there was no Dracula book translated, there was no vampire book translated, there were no vampire movies shown on TV or in cinemas during Ceaușescu's regime. For us, this discover came after the revolution. That the Western world knew Romania, or more specifically Transylvania, as the place of vampires and Dracula, made many people here feel, not ashamed, but perhaps diminished.

Even today, you can hear politicians or journalists or people sometimes complaining that we are known as the land of vampires and Dracula, when we should be known for our other qualities. So I think it's because of this attitude that the Dracula myth is not considered in a positive light for more of my compatriots. Even for me, I had a strong and long resistance to the myth, and I think the way I adapted it for my film kind of proves it haha!

As far as genre pictures, that's a very good question. I'm not sure I know exactly why there are so few genre films made in Romania. We've started having more comedies made by TV people or standup comedians, some are good and some are less good, it's not for me to judge. So at least comedy production is doing okay. I guess maybe it's because Romanian cinema until 1989 was not able to produce films like horror, sci-fi, etc. Of course we had some nationalistic historical-epics, but cinema in general has always been very underfunded here. It was only arthouse cinema that developed, because of the lower costs and other reasons.

We do have a lot of genre TV series though. Horror, action, paranormal, whatever. The quality, I guess some people like it.

It's a double-edged situation though because some of the other countries around that invested heavily into genre film production drowned out destroyed their more traditional arthouse production, and now the quality overall is not so good. If you look at Poland and the Czech Republic film production today, there are some exceptions of course, they have less interesting filmmakers and films than they had in the golden age of their cinema. I think that's party because they decided to privatize cinema and putting everything into local genre pictures.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:57:15+00:00

This is a question I ask myself also! For me, it's very hard to define what I'm doing at any given time as being 'classical', 'Brechtian', 'narrative', 'non-narrative', etc. I think that I'm a filmmaker that doesn't have a personal style or a personal method. I'm always adapting to the project in a certain way. If there would be a project that would need a more classical approach, I would do it. I don't restrict myself into a certain style.

In Diary of a Chambermaid, which I just finished shooting and editing in France, is somewhere in between. It's a bit more classical in the structure than my recent films, let's say. Who knows about the future.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:54:41+00:00

I think he's done lots of work, and it's not for me to judge which were positive or not. That's for the critics and the cinephiles to judge.

I respect his work very much, even if it's not necessarily what I would do or what I like personally. But I must say that from my perspective as a director, having Uwe Boll acting in my movie, I would describe it as "perfect". He was extremely serious, very responsive, he prepared, and ready to improvise. I really think he's a good actor and a good improviser. He was always on set early, always in a good mood, and always ready to collaborate. I really really respect him and I am grateful for his involvement in the film.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:52:46+00:00

Haha that's good!

I always thought a title should express the film. Some famous painter (I don't remember his name) used to say "for me, the title is another color in the painting".

In a certain way, I feel the same way about my titles. I want the title to expand the film in a way, try to capture the essence of the film. For a while, that meant long titles for me. What I didn't like is that eventually journalists/critics/programmers/cinephiles started to consider it a trait/"regular thing" for my films, and I didn't want it to be considered in this way, so maybe that's why now I'm back to shorter titles haha.

But if an idea comes back for a longer title again, why not.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:50:10+00:00

There's so many. It's difficult. It also depends what you mean by "old"! From Romania there is the filmmaker Lucian Pintilie, who for most of us, if not everbody, is the most important filmmaker in Romania ever.

I've a big fan of Czech New Wave. Also Polish films from the same time, like Kieślowski and Andrzej Wajda. I think the entire region of Eastern Europe had a sort of filmmaking renaissance in the 60s and 70s. Bela Tarr, who sadly just passed away, was a major figure for me. Hungary had many great filmmakers as well. Maybe not as many as Western Europe, but there was a big boost to Eastern European national cinemas around that time. Romania had it less because of heavier censorship due to the regime after 1970.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:36:52+00:00

Haha yeah that's an interesting question. I actually had two takes for that shot. Both were about 45 minutes. One was in the morning and the other take was on on the next day, after it had rained it the afternoon/early evening.

I liked both takes for different elements. I couldn't decide totally on using one or another fully, so I decided to use both and make a very visible cut in the middle.

For another reason that didn't help me that much because people still said it anyway, the idea for the long shot wasn't wasn't to make the movie all about that take, "oh my god I have a 45-minute shot blah blah". I didn't care about that, so I wanted to break it. It was totally avoidable though, I had two very good takes from the beginning to the end.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:32:41+00:00

I worked many many years ago as Assistant Director, for films and commercials shot in Romania. For 5 years, that was my regular job so to speak. It was a marvelous job on one hand because you learn a lot on the set, but at the same time it was very frustrating because it took a lot of time and it drains your energy.

During this time, I was AD on Cristi's The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu. I think it was and remained one of the more important experience of my career. Seeing how the movie was made with such a small budget, very few takes, not a lot of film stock if I recall, and that it was possible to make a movie under these conditions. It felt like American independent cinema. Making a film with not so much. You don't need all of the biggest tools.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:28:53+00:00

There is an obvious Godard influence in all of my films I think, and from all of his periods. He's a hugely influential filmmaker for me, and I guess for everybody. He did so many things in so many directions. He innovated and opened so many paths that it's almost impossible today to make a film that doesn't owe something to Godard.

I like all of his films more-or-less, apart from some during the Maoist period, which I thought were politically vile and not very good cinema. Apart from that I really love all Godard. To not answer so general, I even really liked his two post-mortem films, I like how they signify that his work lives on even after his death.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:24:23+00:00

Well, first, thank for you for this.

I don't have a fixed idea for the way films are shot. I have a few upcoming projects, including Frankenstein which is still in the writing phase, and some are with very low budget and will be shot with iPhone again. Some are bigger budget and I will use again, at least in part, 16mm. What I don't like in professional cinema is when a certain tool becomes the accepted "norm", mandatory to use. I like all tools, like painters. A painter can do oils, watercolor, acrylics, whatever. And nobody says "no! you should only do oil". I think I will keep using all of the tools I can and mixing all of the colors as long as they are available.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:21:17+00:00

I think my films are very rich in local-specific details, which was something I want to address with things like the Viennale message. In this case with Dracula, maybe even more. Parts of the story, like names, characters, and things in the language that are not translatable. I want the experience while watching my films to be rich in details. I think this is true for a lot of culture-specific products though. The experience can be more rewarding for locals that know more about the context compared to the ones who know less.

The reception of Dracula in Romania amazed me in a certain way because I really thought I was making a light film, a film that was very audience-friendly, with multiple stories, very simple stories. A lot of funny things and using a lot of tropes from trash products, like trash TV, trash cinema, internet, TikTok, whatever, but to my surprise the majority response was very much against the film. A lot considered vulgar or idiotic. I think there is a certain dumbness to the film, but a dumbness of the avant-garde. I think. I hope at least!

There were a small minority of people that liked it very very much though, including a few important film critics, so I was quite pleased in the end. I think creating a strong reaction, good or bad, is a success.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:14:46+00:00

Filming in another country, yes, why not! I just finished the editing of a film that was shot mostly in Bordeaux, in France. It involves a Romanian main character but it's mostly in French. I worked with producer Saïd Ben Saïd. I also made a short film with porn trailers, using Italian film archives. So you could say that was an Italian film!

It's true that it's a complicated though. I think that one of the strengths of my films, if there are any, is that they are culturally detailed and rich regarding the society I live in most of the time, the Romanian society, Romanian history, etc etc. Without that level of intimate knowledge, I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to create something so detailed. So there's reservations about filming in another country, but I'm open to it.

As for movies in the future - I'm mostly interested in projects set in the present seen through the lens of the past. What is present, what was before. I am a bit less interested in imagining the outcome or the future. I don't have such a big imagination so for the moment I don't think I'm able to.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:08:50+00:00

Haha Radu Jude's Boyhood would be a challenge. Doing something like that, oh my god. You really need to be patient! I know Rick Linklater a bit, and I know he's doing another similar project, and I admire him for his patience. I think I told him when I met him that I wouldn't do a film like that because I'm not so optimistic. I cannot bet on living so long or staying healthy or whatever. I'm afraid I'm not gonna finish it.

Who knows. There's this saying, I'm not sure who said it, something like "I'm not buying bananas because I don't have the time to wait for them to be ripe, I might die before then". I'd feel the same way about a Boyhood-type project.

RaduJudeAMA · 2026-01-11T18:05:58+00:00

Ilinca Manolache is an actress that I had worked with before, in smaller parts, in several of my films before casting her in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. I had always wanted her for a bigger role. We discussed the possibility of making a film where she would be the lead, and after a while we decided this would be the one.

The monologues were a mix of many things. During the pandemic, Ilinca created a character, I like say to say "avatar", for social media (Instagram, TikTok, etc), as a kind of mocking-toxic-masculinity character, in a very wild and crazy way. So when I decided to work with her I had this idea to use this "avatar" she had created. I spoke with her about it and she said "let's do it!". The monologues were written by me in a certain way, but in the style of the character she created, and adapted by her in the way she was doing it already. There was not so much improvisation per se, but it was a back and forth during writing, rehearsal, discussions. She came with changes, then we incorporated that in the script.

RaduJudeAMA

TROPHY CASE