Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #35. Uppercase Print – Radu Jude

Published on January 2, 2020

Uppercase Print

One of the latter figures of the Romanian New Wave, Radu Jude, also remains one of the busiest. He returns to the nightmare of the Ceausescu era with his latest, Uppercase Print, which stars Serban Pavlu (a regular for Jude), Ioana Jacob (who starred in I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, 2018) and Bogdan Zamfir (who made his debut in Fidelio: Alice’s Journey in 2014 and had a bit part in the Dardenne Bros.’ Young Ahmed this year). Gianina Cărbunariu adapts her own documentary play with Jude in this project, produced by Ada Solomon (who produced his 2015 award winner Aferim!), while his regular DP Marius Panduru is also in tow. Jude’s 2009 debut The Happiest Girl in the World premiered in Berlin’s Forum sidebar (winning the C.I.C.A.E. award), as well as his 2012 film Everybody in Our Family. In 2015, he competed for the Golden Bear in Berlin and won Best Director. In 2014, his short “It Can Pass Through the Wall” was programmed at Cannes. In 2016, Jude won the Special Jury prize in Locarno for Scarred Hearts and returned to the fest a year later with the documentary The Dead Nation in 2017. Rude won the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary for I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians.

Gist: Based on Gianina Cărbunariu’s documentary play, Uppercase Print interweaves two narrative strands. Archival footage depicting everyday life in 1980s Romania is mixed into the true story of Mugur Călinescu, a teenager who wrote anti-Ceausescu graffiti and was thus apprehended and crushed by the state.

Release Date/Prediction: An early 2020 theatrical Romanian release is anticipated for Jude’s newest feature, which means he’s likely to compete the second time in Berlin.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.