On the Interwoven Dilemmas of Knowledge Women in Radu Jude's Films

Abstract

Romanian director Radu Jude's recent works demonstrate a sustained focus on the topic of intellectuals, with a particular prefer
ence for depicting a series of female intellectual figures. This paper examines four of his filmsI Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as
Barbarians, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, and Continental 25focusing on three
core female roles: institutional knowledge women, female avant-garde independent artists, and female knowledge-based lower-class proletar
ians. They are respectively portrayed as sacrifices to order, dislocated resistors, and hollow performers. This paper aims to clarify, through the
perspective of "Intersectionality", the complex dilemmas these characters face, stemming from the intersection of gender, ethnicity, profes
sion, and intellectual identity. Ultimately, it argues that Radu Jude is not merely narrating individual fates but using these knowledge women
as "symptoms" to conduct a profound diagnosis of the structural contradictions in post-socialist Romanian society, analyzing the overarching
crises related to historical memory,public rationality, and value recognition in Romania.