Le journal d’une femme de chambre (Romania, France, 2026, 94′)

Italian subtitles

Friday 9 October, 9 p.m., Cinema Massimo, Screen 3, Via Giuseppe Verdi, 18

On Friday 9 October at 9 p.m. at Cinema Massimo, Screen 3, Job Film Days presents the Italian premiere of Le journal d’une femme de chambre by Radu Jude, screened at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. In this film by one of contemporary European cinema’s most brilliant and radical directors, the work of Gianina, a young Romanian woman employed as a domestic worker by a bourgeois family in Bordeaux, and the role she is preparing for the stage begin to mirror one another.

Alongside lead actress Ana Dumitrașcu, the cast includes Vincent Macaigne as her employer Pierre Donnadieu, and Mélanie Thierry. With corrosive irony and black humour, Jude lays bare invisible labour, class relations, immigration and the contradictions of a bourgeoisie that is progressive only on the surface. A social satire that turns everyday life into an uncomfortable mirror for the viewer.

The film is introduced by Roberto Manassero (film critic).

Admission: tickets required.

International title: Diary of a Chambermaid
Original title: Le journal d’une femme de chambre 
Director, screenplay: Radu Jude
Photography: Marius Panduru
Editing: Catalin Cristutiu  
Cast: Ana Dumitrascu, Mélanie Thierry, Vincent Macaigne, Marie Rivière 
Production: SBS Productions

Gianina is a Romanian woman working as a housekeeper in Bordeaux for a wealthy couple, Pierre and Marguerite, and their young son, Louve. Separated, she left her daughter in Romania in the care of her grandmother. Waiting to return home for Christmas and reunite with her child, Gianina spends her days taking care of the house and Louve. Furthermore, she takes part in the staging of Octave Mirabeau’s Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d’une femme de chambre), which will be performed by non-professional actors as part of a form of community theatre. But an unexpected event will prevent Gianina returning home. 

Presented at Cannes 2026 in the Quinzaine des cinéastes section, Radu Jude’s movie – in its Italian premiere – is a powerful social satire featuring a stellar cast, the film exposes class relations, immigration, bourgeois hypocrisy, and the quiet racism hidden within political correctness.

Radu Jude. Is a director, screenwriter, and one of contemporary Romanian cinema’s most authoritative voices. After studying directing at Bucharest University, he started working as an assistant to Costa-Gravas and Cristi Puiu. Thereafter, he directed various short films before making his long feature film debut in 2009, The Happiest Girl in the World. His cinema explores society and politics making use of comedy and satire. He made both fictional movies and documentaries. In 2021, he won the Golden bear at the Berlinale with Sesso fortunato o follie porno (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn).

Partial filmography: The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), Aferim! (2015), Scarred Hearts (2016), I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018), Uppercase Print (2020), The Exit of the Trains (doc., 2020), Sesso fortunato o follie porno (2021), The Potemkinists (sf, 2022), Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023), Sleep #2 (doc., 2024), Eight Postcards from Utopia (doc., 2024), Kontinental ’25 (2025), Dracula (2025), Le journal d’une femme de chambre (2026).