Radu Jude's 'Dracula' Review: A Satirical Cut-Up of Romania's Iconic Vampire
Radu Jude's latest cinematic offering, Dracula, transforms Romania's most reliable export into the focus of a knockabout cut-up satire. Notionally centered on the legendary vampire, this new movie features a bizarre troupe of actors performing a floor-show routine, blending wildly improvised, no-budget theatricality with elements reminiscent of Brecht or Fassbinder.
Innovative Pop-Up Cinema Style
Jude's films exhibit a make-do-and-mend aesthetic, often appearing as if concocted on the spot using whatever materials are at hand. This includes snippets of TV advertisements, poorly executed AI in service of what he previously termed loony porn, and amateur dramatic scenes with actors in ridiculous dress-up. Each Jude film feels almost ephemeral, as if designed for a single viewing; replaying it might reveal only a blank screen, as though the director and his ragged company have packed up and vanished into the night.
Epic Length and Satirical Edge
Stretched to an epic length, Dracula combines knockabout comedy with stretches of tedium, redeemed just barely by its angry, pointed satire. The film ostensibly follows a smug and supercilious filmmaker, played by Adonis Tanta, who introduces a cheapo film he is crafting on his iPad using unbearable AI. Simultaneously, a rackety troupe of actors performs a floor-show about Dracula in what resembles a restaurant setting.
Veteran Romanian actor Gabriel Spahiu portrays an aged and delusional thespian who once believed he truly was Dracula, while Oana Maria Zaharia takes on the role of Vampira, a sexy and vampy representative of the undead. This group encourages audience members to engage in sexual encounters with cast members and offers families a more wholesome hide-and-seek romp, chasing vampire actors out into the streets.
Mini-Films and Political Commentary
Interspersed throughout are set-piece mini-films-within-a-film on Dracula-adjacent themes. The most successful of these is a communist-era tale about a truck driver who falls in love with a local woman. After confessing he is married, she horrifyingly jumps from his lorry and impales herself in a Vlad-like manner. Beyond this, the film serves as a pantomime-phantom of Romania's local hero and reliably profitable intellectual property.
Here, Dracula becomes an image of the country's undead-persistent strains, including fascism, antisemitism, clerical arrogance, exploitative service economy, and stakeholder capitalism. Specifically, it references a proposal from the late 1990s for a Dracula theme park, where thousands of Romanian citizens invested money they would never recover.
Patience-Testing and Future Predictions
Dracula may test viewers' patience, lacking the energy and focus of Jude's earlier works like Kontinental '25 or Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. While the film distances itself from vampire industry cliches, the wildly overexposed count remains a cliche in his own right. One day, Jude might create a biopic on political vampirism centered on Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, Romania's most pressing subject. Regardless, Dracula offers moments of startling insanity and is set to screen at the ICA in London from April 10.
