Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World(2023)
dir. Radu Jude
The gig economy as a very long drive.
Where to watch: Streaming on MUBI (verify)Letterboxd ↗
Angela, an exhausted production assistant in Bucharest, spends a very long day driving around the city, collecting interviews for a workplace-safety video that a multinational wants made, while filming herself as a vulgar TikTok alter ego in her spare moments. Intercut is a 1981 Romanian film about a woman taxi driver. It is long, crude and funny, and it won a special jury prize at Locarno.
Why it’s here
The film is a comedy about the gig economy that refuses to look away. What's punk is that it makes the company's demand, injured workers on camera saying it was their fault, the main event, and then spends hours showing what that costs. What's pedagogical is the way it makes labor, media and class legible without any explanation. A good global-cinema addition under LAUGH & RESIST, next to Sorry to Bother You and Network.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Eastern Europe
Read Alongside
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