After the world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival of the movie Dracula, Radu Jude is already working on a new daring film project.
„I am currently working on a film. It’s about Frankenstein in Romania. That’s what it will be called,” the director stated in an interview for Hollywood Reporter.
Sebastian Stan, a Romanian-American actor known for his roles in The Apprentice, A Different Man, Pam & Tommy, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, will play both the role of Victor Frankenstein and the monster, as announced by Jude.
"Sebastian contacted me some time ago, said he would like us to collaborate, but I had no idea. In the end, I thought I could propose a film that starts from the reality of the CIA prisons in Romania, from 20 years ago, and combine these ideas with another cinematic myth, that of the Frankenstein monster. Sebastian said yes, so I started writing the script, but it will take some time," stated Radu Jude in an interview for culturaladuba.ro.
Radu Jude, involved in a multitude of projects
This is just one of Radu Jude's ambitious projects in 2025. Earlier this year, he premiered "Kontinental '25" at the Berlin Film Festival, a absurd comedy-drama about the housing crisis in Romania and the middle class in conflict with itself. The film won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.
On Sunday, at the Locarno Film Festival, in the official competition of the 78th edition, Jude premiered "Dracula," a deconstruction of the Dracula myth, full of dark humor, a style that has made him famous. "This film contains scenes that could shock the sensibility of some viewers," notes the festival's website.
After Locarno, Jude plans to start filming another production. "It's like a very distant dialogue with the novel 'The Diary of a Chambermaid' by [Octave] Mirbeau," he said to Hollywood Reporter. "I want to talk about immigration and about Romanians working abroad. It's about a woman working for a French family in Bordeaux, while her own young daughter stays at home. So, it's a film about these dramatic issues," Jude added.
This means that the tone will be less "Dracula-like." "It is, in a way, closer to Kontinental '25; it's a bit more serious," Jude explains. "I am interested in exploring this connection between the Western world and Romania, respectively Eastern Europe, through the story of a character," the director emphasized.
G.P.