Radu Jude – I Don't Know
“You ask me why I make short films and not just feature films. A Zen proverb tells us: In the spring landscape, there is nothing superior, nothing inferior. Flowering branches grow naturally. Some short, some long.”
If there is any established filmmaker today whose short films deserve our attention (just as it pays to read not just the novels but also the short stories of Franz Kafka or Jaroslav Hašek), then Radu Jude is definitely one such director.
It may not be obvious at first glance, but the decision to continue making short films is a conscious act of rebellion. It is an illusion that short films are less work. If you do a short film properly, the amount of effort is the same. The energy saved because of the smaller number of shooting days and the lower production costs is expended on working with point of view and time.
In addition, established producers have no reason to embrace short films. After all, what to do with a product that cannot be easily packaged and distributed? (In other words: Who buys a ticket for a fifteen-minute film?) While students or debut filmmakers can still expect to make short films, since the short running time is often dictated by the school assignment or the grant agency, for established directors the decision to make a short film results from just one thing: the subject matter itself calls for a short format.
Radu Jude’s short films show the full breadth of approaches to this genre and reveal the cinematic diversity of subjects that demand to be filmed in this format.
This section was developed in collaboration with the Ostrava Kamera Oko cinematoghraphers' festival.
Films can be seen at cinemas in Prague and throughout the Czech Republic, but also online at www.kviff.tv, were you can vote for the Audience Awards and win a festival pass for the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
