Radu Jude

Directing

Radu Jude

Born 1977-03-28 · Bucarest, Romania

Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter born in Bucharest in 1977, known for his complex, often political, and anarchic films that explore historical memory, labor, and contemporary society. After graduating from film school, he worked as an assistant director and gained recognition for award-winning short films before directing his feature debut, The Happiest Girl in the World (2009). His work, which blends fact and fiction, uses found footage and contemporary culture, like TikTok, to offer scathing social commentary, earning him major awards from festivals such as Berlin and Sundance.

Acting credits

Can Creativity Save the World? poster
NR

The final part of the Creativity Trilogy explores existential threats our world is facing. An inspiring film about imagination's power and a hopeful glimpse into the future.

Can Creativity Save the World?

2024

The Unknown poster
7.0

Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms - he awakens in her body.

The Unknown

2026

Dracula poster
6.2

In modern-day Transylvania, vampire hunts and labor strikes collide with sci-fi twists, romance, and AI-crafted tales, as multiple storylines blend folklore, classic horror, and contemporary elements into a fresh take on Dracula's legend.

Dracula

2025

I Don't Know poster
5.1

Invited by the goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden (Germany), Radu Jude created a self-portrait. A confinement diary made of his thoughts, his relationship to cinema, his inspirations or the streets, objects and people that surround him.

I Don't Know

2021

Instead of Trees poster
NR

A film critic with philosophical interests, played by the film critic Roger Koza, wonders about the nature of Nature. And he obsessively tries to capture it with his phone camera. Other experts—filmmakers from different countries, art historians, a scenographer in charge of a natural science museum, and members of the human species from a distant future—think about ways of representating nature. A kaleidoscopic, playful collage, sometimes fiction, sometimes documentary, the film cannot help but wonder about the nature of cinema itself.

Instead of Trees

2026

Greetings from Crîngași poster
NR

From the music of Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi, Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude crafts a coda to Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

Greetings from Crîngași

2023

COOL (News from Belarus) poster
NR

In this cinematic zine, directors scattered all over the world adapt to screen hilarious and poignant Belarusian news stories. Featuring phone thieves, TikTok storks, the tiniest castle in the world, and victims of the depression epidemic.

COOL (News from Belarus)

2023

Cinemaguerilla poster
NR

A documentary about the New Romanian Cinema. "Cinemaguerilla" brings together over 30 interviews with directors, producers, actors, film historians and critics about what unites and what separates the New Wave of Romanian films.

Cinemaguerilla

2009

The Dead Nation poster
6.0

A documentary-essay which shows Costică Axinte's stunning collection of pictures depicting a Romanian small town in the thirties and forties. The narration, composed mostly from excerpts taken from the diary of a Jewish doctor from the same era, tells the rising of the antisemitism and eventually a harrowing depiction of the Romanian Holocaust.

The Dead Nation

2017

Dear Intellectuals poster
NR

Radu Jude's contribution to Cinem@casa, which he produced in isolation during the pandemic.

Dear Intellectuals

2020

Caricaturana poster
5.3

Inspired by an idea from Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, director Radu Jude silently flips through satirical lithographs by 19th-century French artist Honoré-Victorin Daumier. Soon, the caricatures’ original texts are read out. Finally, the caricatures are used as commentary for actual news.

Caricaturana

2021

Behind the camera

Kontinental '25 poster
6.5

Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, the main city in Transylvania. One day she has to evict a homeless man from a cellar, an action with tragic consequences that triggers a moral crisis which Orsolya must weather as best she can.

Kontinental '25

2025

Kontinental '25 poster
6.5

Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, the main city in Transylvania. One day she has to evict a homeless man from a cellar, an action with tragic consequences that triggers a moral crisis which Orsolya must weather as best she can.

Kontinental '25

2025

The Diary of a Chambermaid poster
NR

Gianina, a young Romanian, works as a housekeeper for a bourgeois family in Bordeaux. In the evenings, she rehearses the role of a maid with an amateur theater troupe in an adaptation of The Diary of a Chambermaid by Octave Mirbeau. She takes care of Louen, her employers’ son, while her own daughter is growing up far from her, in Romania. The maternal absence deepens into a wound but, as Christmas approaches, the promise of a reunion begins to take shape.

The Diary of a Chambermaid

2026

The Diary of a Chambermaid poster
NR

Gianina, a young Romanian, works as a housekeeper for a bourgeois family in Bordeaux. In the evenings, she rehearses the role of a maid with an amateur theater troupe in an adaptation of The Diary of a Chambermaid by Octave Mirbeau. She takes care of Louen, her employers’ son, while her own daughter is growing up far from her, in Romania. The maternal absence deepens into a wound but, as Christmas approaches, the promise of a reunion begins to take shape.

The Diary of a Chambermaid

2026

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World poster
6.9

On behalf of a multinational company, a production assistant drives around the Romanian city of Bucharest, interviewing various citizens who have been injured due to work accidents to cast one of them in a “safety at work” video.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

2023

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World poster
6.9

On behalf of a multinational company, a production assistant drives around the Romanian city of Bucharest, interviewing various citizens who have been injured due to work accidents to cast one of them in a “safety at work” video.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

2023

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World poster
6.9

On behalf of a multinational company, a production assistant drives around the Romanian city of Bucharest, interviewing various citizens who have been injured due to work accidents to cast one of them in a “safety at work” video.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

2023

Dracula poster
6.2

In modern-day Transylvania, vampire hunts and labor strikes collide with sci-fi twists, romance, and AI-crafted tales, as multiple storylines blend folklore, classic horror, and contemporary elements into a fresh take on Dracula's legend.

Dracula

2025

Dracula poster
6.2

In modern-day Transylvania, vampire hunts and labor strikes collide with sci-fi twists, romance, and AI-crafted tales, as multiple storylines blend folklore, classic horror, and contemporary elements into a fresh take on Dracula's legend.

Dracula

2025

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians poster
6.7

"I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians." These words, spoken in the Council of Ministers of the summer of 1941, started the ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. The film attempts to comment on this statement.

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians

2018

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians poster
6.7

"I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians." These words, spoken in the Council of Ministers of the summer of 1941, started the ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. The film attempts to comment on this statement.

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians

2018

Uppercase Print poster
7.1

In 1981, chalk slogans written in uppercase letters started appearing in public spaces in the Romanian city of Botoşani. They demanded freedom, alluded to the democratic developments taking place in Romania’s socialist sister countries or simply called for improvements in the food supply. Mugur Călinescu was behind them, who was still at school at the time and whose case is documented in the files of the Romanian secret police. Theatre director Gianina Cărbunariu created a documentary play based on this material.

Uppercase Print

2020

Uppercase Print poster
7.1

In 1981, chalk slogans written in uppercase letters started appearing in public spaces in the Romanian city of Botoşani. They demanded freedom, alluded to the democratic developments taking place in Romania’s socialist sister countries or simply called for improvements in the food supply. Mugur Călinescu was behind them, who was still at school at the time and whose case is documented in the files of the Romanian secret police. Theatre director Gianina Cărbunariu created a documentary play based on this material.

Uppercase Print

2020

No artwork available
NR

Plot TBA. Represents Radu Jude's feelings of "creative obligation" to Romania and channels Roberto Rossellini's 1948 film 'L'amore' while exploring sociopolitical tensions in Europe.

Love Diptych

No artwork available
NR

Plot TBA. Represents Radu Jude's feelings of "creative obligation" to Romania and channels Roberto Rossellini's 1948 film 'L'amore' while exploring sociopolitical tensions in Europe.

Love Diptych

Little Poems in Prose poster
NR

An anthology of black humour by Radu Jude and Andrei Rus, revealing the inexhaustibly grotesque energy of TikTok (including in the age of the deepfake).

Little Poems in Prose

2025

Little Poems in Prose poster
NR

An anthology of black humour by Radu Jude and Andrei Rus, revealing the inexhaustibly grotesque energy of TikTok (including in the age of the deepfake).

Little Poems in Prose

2025

Little Poems in Prose poster
NR

An anthology of black humour by Radu Jude and Andrei Rus, revealing the inexhaustibly grotesque energy of TikTok (including in the age of the deepfake).

Little Poems in Prose

2025

The Happiest Girl in the World poster
6.8

Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism

The Happiest Girl in the World

2009

The Happiest Girl in the World poster
6.8

Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism

The Happiest Girl in the World

2009

Everybody in Our Family poster
6.9

Marius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother, which causes Marius a deep frustration. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill but he doesn't believe it and insists to take her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humor, violence, childish songs, police interventions and love statements.

Everybody in Our Family

2012

Everybody in Our Family poster
6.9

Marius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother, which causes Marius a deep frustration. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill but he doesn't believe it and insists to take her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humor, violence, childish songs, police interventions and love statements.

Everybody in Our Family

2012

I Don't Know poster
5.1

Invited by the goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden (Germany), Radu Jude created a self-portrait. A confinement diary made of his thoughts, his relationship to cinema, his inspirations or the streets, objects and people that surround him.

I Don't Know

2021

I Don't Know poster
5.1

Invited by the goEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden (Germany), Radu Jude created a self-portrait. A confinement diary made of his thoughts, his relationship to cinema, his inspirations or the streets, objects and people that surround him.

I Don't Know

2021