After earning the most acclaim yet in his career with Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Romanian director Radu Jude is back this year with his latest feature. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, set to premiere at Locarno Film Festival next month, clocks in at 163 minutes and now the first trailer has arrived.
“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (the title quotes an aphorism by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec) is a fragmentary film (part comedy, part road-film) about work, exploitation, death and the new gig economy. At the same time, it is dealing with the difficult problem of image production. All these are at the surface level, as they say, but the film only has this one level; it is a film of surfaces,” Jude said.
Here’s the synopsis:
Part One: We follow Angela, an overworked production assistant who must drive around the city of Bucharest in order to film the casting for a “safety at work” video commissioned by a multinational company, ostensibly to raise awareness among its own employees on the various dangers that lead to work related accidents. Soon she encounters Marian, a half paralysed worker, who gets the part.
Part Two: When Marian reveals on camera that his work related accident is due to the company’s negligence, his statement ignites a scandal, which forces him to re-invent his story to suit the company’s narrative.
Watch below.