Presented this year at the Locarno Film Festival, Radu Jude offers his own interpretation of the most famous Transylvanian figure, endlessly adapted for the screen. The director takes a bite out of the Dracula myth in a bizarre popurri that blends the aesthetics of silent cinema, TikTok, and pornography. In Dracula, vampirism is explored on levels ranging from the sociopolitical to the erotic, while the cruel Vlad Dracula – who inspired the famous novel’s protagonist – proves to be no less of a bloodsucker than today’s vampire, artificial intelligence. Is Dracula, sustained only by the energy of others, not himself a victim of exploitation? That is the question posed by cinema’s punk provocateur, Radu Jude.
Screenings at the “Pasaka” cinema are shown without English subtitles.
