Radu Jude Premieres 'Diary of a Chambermaid' at Cannes
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Radu Jude made his French-language debut with 'Diary of a Chambermaid', which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Diary of a Chambermaid is a contemporary 'variation' on Octave Mirbeau’s novel, starring Ana Dumitrașcu as Romanian migrant Gianina, a housekeeper in Bordeaux.
- Radu Jude previously had two films competing for top awards at Berlin (Golden Bear) and Locarno (Golden Leopard) in the prior year, showing his prolific output.
- Diary of a Chambermaid also screened out of competition at the Transilvania Film Festival alongside Jude’s earlier film 'Dracula', highlighting his dual presence in Romanian and international festivals.
- Radu Jude frames the film as a critique of European solidarity and inequality, noting that 25% of Romanians have emigrated and that migration dynamics are now reversed with foreign workers in Romania.
- Radu Jude says he feels a creative obligation to Romania and European cinema, and he is already planning his next project 'Love Diptych', which will explore a cam‑girl love story and post‑revolutionary missionaries in Romania.
Why it matters: By centering a Romanian migrant housekeeper’s experience, the film gives a cultural platform to the roughly 25 % of Romanians living abroad and spotlights the EU’s uneven solidarity, challenging European audiences to confront contradictions in the Union’s promised equality and urging policymakers to reckon with the social costs of migration.
Ask SkimNews
