LIAS Film Series: "Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World"
Wednesday, February 4th, 7 pm | SCALA Arthouse Cinema | free admission
04. Feb
This screening is part of the LIAS Film Series in cooperation with SCALA Programmkino. Each month, a curated selection of international films addressing cultural and social issues is presented, accompanied by introductions and discussions.
Date: Wednesday, 4 February 2026, 7 pm
Location: SCALA Programmkino | Apothekenstr. 17 | 21335 Lüneburg
Free admission
2023 | Director: Radu Jude | Romania | 164 Min.
LIAS Fellow Jason Goldfarb
In Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude delivers a sharp, restless, and darkly comic portrait of contemporary labor, image-making, and moral compromise.
Structured in two contrasting yet deeply intertwined parts, the film follows Angela, a production assistant navigating the chaotic streets of Bucharest while casting workers for a corporate “safety at work” video. Commissioned by a multinational company, the project claims to promote responsibility and care, yet quickly exposes the hollow rhetoric behind corporate ethics.
When Marian, a half-paralyzed worker, is chosen for the video and openly states that his accident resulted from the company’s negligence, the carefully managed façade collapses. What follows is a cynical and often absurd process of damage control, in which truth must be reshaped to fit an acceptable narrative. Jude uses this conflict to dissect not only economic exploitation and the gig economy, but also the mechanics of audiovisual representation itself—how images are produced, manipulated, and emptied of meaning.
Blending road movie, satire, montage, and smartphone footage, the film embraces fragmentation as both form and critique. With biting humor and deliberate roughness, Jude confronts a digital, post-totalitarian society where capitalism, technology, and spectacle collide. The result is a provocative, unsettling work that refuses comfort, coherence, or easy conclusions, and instead mirrors the contradictions of the world it depicts.
