Brand-new boutique distribution label 1-2 Special has made its first big buy — out of the Berlinale, and it’s a banger. The new shingle has Friday announced that it has acquired North American rights to “Kontinental ’25,” the latest film from Radu Jude, director of 2021 Golden Bear winner “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” and “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.” The Romanian filmmaker’s work has been widely acclaimed in the States.
The film premiered in competition earlier this month at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay from a jury led by Todd Haynes. Officially described as “an existential black comedy that follows Orsolya (Eszter Tompa), a bailiff in Cluj, Transylvania,” the film follows what happens “one day [when] she must evict a homeless man who lives in the basement of a building. An unexpected event creates a moral crisis she tries to solve as best she can.”
IndieWire’s review of the film noted that “its moral dimensions are more straightforward than those in Jude’s previous work (and its form much simpler in kind), but only because their practical applications are that much knottier in return. Where ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ and ‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World’ scaled their characters’ personal depravities against sprawling backdrops of systemic abuse, the far more intimate — and less uproarious — ‘Kontinental ’25’ filters the perversity of neoliberalism through the eyes of a well-meaning woman’s attempt to do the right thing.”
The film is the first buy for Jason Hellerstein’s recently launched 1-2 Special, and Hellerstein shared in an official statement, “There couldn’t be a better first acquisition for us than the newest film from Radu Jude, one of the most innovative and provocative filmmakers working today. It’s a privilege to work with Radu to bring ‘Kontinental ’25’ to audiences across North America.”
1-2 Special is a theatrical-first, all-rights distributor, “dedicated to releasing boundary-pushing works from visionary directors.” Hellerstein launched the company earlier this month, after leaving his perch at Sideshow, where he served as co-founding executive. Prior to Sideshow, he worked in acquisitions at Magnolia Pictures and in marketing and PR at Cinetic Media. With the New York-based 1-2 Special, Hellerstein aims to release up to 10 films annually. Hellerstein will serve as CEO of 1-2 Special and will announce additional hires this spring.
In an official note, the always-wily Jude shared, “Dear friends, the makers of ‘Kontinental ’25’ are happy to be able to share the film, which takes place in the Transylvanian region of Romania, with the American audiences. For me personally, as the writer-director of the film, America is first and foremost the country of cinema (even when a bunch of crooks run it) and I deeply hope our film will meet a great audience there, people who are curious to see how the world looks like in a faraway land. As for Canada, we are very honoured to show our film in a brave and independent country.”