Dracula(2025)

Plot Summary

• Dracula is a 2025 Romanian satirical comedy-drama written and directed by Radu Jude. The film is set in contemporary Transylvania and deconstructs the Dracula legend through dozens of interlocking stories, absurd, political, literary, and fantastical, framed by a narrative in which a filmmaker turns to a generative AI chatbot to help him make his Dracula film. The resulting vignettes include a vampire hunt, Dracula and zombies disrupting a workers' strike, a science-fiction story about Vlad the Impaler, an adaptation of the first Romanian vampire novella, a folktale, and a love story. The cast includes Adonis Tanta, Oana Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu, Ilinca Manolache, Alexandru Dabija, Andrada Balea, and Serban Pavlu. Cinematography is by Marius Panduru. The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Locarno Film Festival on August 10, 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Leopard. It also screened at the Chicago International Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival, and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Made on a budget of approximately 1.5 million euros and shot over 29 days across locations in Transylvania, including medieval fortresses in Sighisoara and Bucharest, the film is a co-production between Romania, Austria, Luxembourg, and Brazil. The film runs 170 minutes. Core themes include myth, power, capitalism, AI and image-making, Romanian history, and the relationship between cinema and the stories a culture tells about itself. The film is for audiences drawn to formally experimental, politically provocative European art cinema.