The Diary of a Chambermaid
Southeast Asian Premiere
Radu Jude France, Romania 2026 94 min NC16 (Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Gianina leaves behind her daughter in Romania to cook, clean and care for a family in France. At night, she rehearses a scandalous play about domestic servants—a vulgar, exaggerated version of the exploitation she quietly endures.
Gianina, a young woman from rural Romania, works as a housekeeper, cook and nanny for a bourgeois family in France. She navigates their genial condescension and cares for their son, while trying to maintain a bond with her own daughter through video calls. At night, she rehearses a play based on Octave Mirbeau’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, a salacious novel from 1900 that skewers upper-class hypocrisy.
Radu Jude’s metafictional take on domestic servitude confronts the insidious patterns of contemporary exploitation and the limits of performative empathy. This story of migrant labour and maternal sacrifice finds the prolific satirist at his most heartfelt, without losing any of his acerbic wit.
Synopsis Writer: Tracey Toh
23 Oct, Fri 8:45PM / 94 min
Filmhouse, Green Room
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The Diary of a Chambermaid
Le journal d'une femme de chambre
Radu Jude
France, Romania
2026
French, Romanian
English
94 min
NC16 (Coarse Language and Sexual References)
Southeast Asian Premiere
Radu Jude
Romanian provocateur Radu Jude is known for making satirical films that dissect his country’s society and politics. He won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) and Locarno’s Special Jury Prize for Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023). The Diary of a Chambermaid premiered at Cannes.
Ana Dumitrașcu,
Mélanie Thierry,
Vincent Macaigne
Saïd Ben Saïd