I don't get why Radu Jude doesn't make straight documentaries. He seems passionate about historical subjects and themes, and yet he chooses to translate them into the forms of fiction cinema. The results, as is the case here, are boring and non cinematic. Here, he uses a theater play stage as vehicle for his story, mixed with communist era news clips which apparently have nothing to do with the story. Just adding context, atmosphere, whatever. The result is tedious and non watchable if you're into cinema. So either Jude likes the story and could have made a real movie on it, or he's after the historical value of the story and documents and he could've made a documentary. He chose both, so he got neither. Way to go.
Review of Uppercase Print
