One of Romania’s most renowned documentary filmmakers delves once more into his homeland’s dark past. Using a collection of 1930s and 1940s photographs from a provincial studio, the film initially depicts everyday scenes from a small town. Gradually, however, German soldiers enter the frame: grinning broadly, they pose alongside their Romanian allies. These seemingly innocuous photographs gain unsettling depth when paired with the soundtrack—militaristic and patriotic speeches by fascist politicians of the time. The director himself reads aloud from the harrowing diaries of a Jewish doctor from Bucharest. The theatrical backdrops and incidental props mask a nightmarish reality: while the friendly townspeople smiled for the camera, their Jewish neighbors were being deported and murdered in death camps. Merging classic documentary elements with an avant-garde approach, Jude has crafted a film that is impossible to forget. 

Konrad Wirkowski