Radu Jude Unveils New Dracula Film at Locarno Festival

“At the Locarno Film Festival this year, filmmaker Radu Jude didn’t hold back in his criticism of the Romanian Film Centre. “The Romanian Film Centre is run by an idiot,” Jude stated towards the end of his masterclass session.

Jude specifically named Anca Mitran, the head of the Romanian Film Centre, addressing the challenges of securing financing for experimental or unconventional projects. He explained that the Centre compares completed films to their initial screenplays and demands repayment if there are any deviations.

The audience, including veteran producer Ted Hope, listened intently as Jude shared his experiences. Hope is a member of Locarno’s industry advisory board.

Jude is returning to the Locarno Festival after winning the Special Jury Prize in 2023 with his film Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. This year, he is debuting two new films in competition: Eight Postcards From Utopia, an experimental found-footage documentary, and Sleep #2, a meditative tribute to Andy Warhol.

During the session, Jude also hinted at future projects, revealing that he is currently working on a feature about Dracula. “I am from Romania. My father is actually from Transylvania. It’s time that someone from Romania does a Dracula film. It’s only Hollywood that has done it 1,000 times,” he said. “We shouldn’t let Hollywood dominate our Dracula.”

He mentioned that the Dracula film, listed as Dracula Park on IMDb, has already garnered praise from collaborators. Ilinca Manolache, who starred in Jude’s last film, described the script as “brilliant, amazing, funny, and gorgeous” in an interview with AnOther magazine.

Besides the Dracula project, Jude is working on an independent feature and has multiple projects in different stages of financing and co-production. “I also have this French film I was proposed by a producer,” he added. “I say yes to everything, so I said yes to him. So there are things happening. If one of these five happens I will be happy.”

Earlier this week, a first-look clip of Eight Postcards From Utopia was shared. Directed by Jude in collaboration with philosopher Christian Ferencz-Flatz, the film is a found-footage documentary composed entirely of post-socialist Romanian advertisements. The film explores themes of love, death, the human body, and political ideologies.

Jude described the film as “episodic” with a narrative split into short chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect of the advertised utopian world. “Exploring the various facets of this utopian dream world with the toolkit of montage, the film turns the fictional and often ludicrous medium of advertising clips into a magnifying glass for the society’s desires, beliefs, hopes, and fears,” Jude said in a statement.

The film was produced by Alexandru Teodorescu with editing by Cătălin Cristuțiu, sound by Ștefan Ruxandra, and a sound mix by Alexandru Dumitru. Heretic is handling world sales.

The Locarno Film Festival runs until August 17.