This is my first Radu Jude and his first film set in France. I have it on good authority that it is perhaps significantly shorter than some of his other films and maybe not quite so anarchic.

Jude is Romanian and so we have an interleaving of two cultures in the story of Gianina (Ana Dumitrascu), who works as a maid and nanny in the sumptuous house of Pierre (Vincent Macaigne) and Marguerite Donnadieu (Mélanie Thierry). She looks after their young son Louen, cooks all the meals, endlessly cleans the windows and mirrors, and is pleasant to her employers even when they are embarrassing.

The conflict for her is that she has a young daughter back in Romania being looked after by her mother. She must work abroad in order to save up enough money to pay off loans, something that her young daughter of course struggles to understand.

This story is based on the play by Octave Mirbeau, and interspersed with the unfolding dramas at the Donnadieu’s‘s house, Gianina is performing in a stage play. It is at the suggestion of her employer and is an annual production by literary students who are obviously strong allies for migrant rights without really realising what it might be like.

Although the themes are essentially serious, there is a lightness of touch to the interactions between Gianina and her employers, the bombastic and self absorbed nature of the wealthy people around her, the many well meaning yet ill informed people, and the melodramatic performance of the stage play.

What I found particularly effective was the contrasting of Gianina‘s culture, told in very dark fairytales to young Louen. We see glimpses of her upbringing which is survival based, brutal, and without hope for a better life. It is contrasted with the opulent house of the Donnadieus, the wife’s cabinet of trinkets and curiosities, their ability to stand back and watch the world as if it is entertainment and the satire of the theatre production.

The social and political subject is fairly gentle, as we are dislocated from the realities of Romania and warmly ensconced in the Christmas lights of a French December.