Don't Let Me Die

Anastasia ✄1.5

If I had a nickel for every Romanian movie to be released in 2025 about a woman who grieves and feels high guilt over someone's death, while having the minimum to do with their death, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice… (And if we're pitting them against each other, then Radu Jude is the clear winner).And thanks to that little coincidence, I even have something to write about this insanely tasteless movie. Which is painful, because whenever you find a film with less than 300 logs on it, you want it to be this little niche masterpiece to make the top of all of your lists so you can monitor who from your mutuals you managed to put on another hidden gem. Clearly not the case here, as I'll definitely forget that I even watched this movie in a few days.2025 ranked

Luca Bruno2.0

A woman becomes consumed with guilt over her possible complicity in another woman's death. She arranges the burial, even volunteers to give up part of her family's burial plot… and yet she continues to be haunted – literally.That's all fine, albeit very slow, until the film abandons all narrative and flees into a series of – to my tiny little brain – incomprehensible imagery (the excavator!?) and events I couldn't even make sense of with dream logic or the loose «rules» of the subconscious applied.My least favourite kind of slow cinema: the kind that offers no justification whatsoever for being this slow. Not even the presence of Romanian Ana de Armas could make it more bearable.Two stars – one for each dog. 🐕 Locarno 2025, #20

Mihai Doana3.0

Cel mai lung scurtmetraj pe care l-am vazut