# Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
**Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World** (*Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii*) is a 2023 Romanian satirical comedy film written and directed by Radu Jude, in which an overworked production assistant in [Bucharest](https://www.edgepedia.org/bucharest) films a workplace safety video for a multinational corporation while venting her frustration through a misogynistic TikTok alter ego[1](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world). It premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, and it was selected as Romania's submission for the 2024 Academy Awards[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf) • [4](https://agerpres.ro/cultura/2023/10/17/jude-despre-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-filmul-explodeaza-in-mai-multe-directii--1187900).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Radu Jude, a Golden Bear winner (for *Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn*, 2021)[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world) |
| Original title | *Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii*, an aphorism of the Polish writer Stanisław Jerzy Lec, also quoted by Umberto Eco in *Foucault's Pendulum*[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf) |
| Runtime and language | 163 minutes (2h 43m); Romanian dialogue[1](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world) |
| Production | Romania, Croatia, France, and Luxembourg; producers Ada Solomon and Adrian Sitaru[1](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world) |
| Awards | Special Jury Prize at Locarno; Romania's submission for the 2024 Oscars[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf) • [4](https://agerpres.ro/cultura/2023/10/17/jude-despre-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-filmul-explodeaza-in-mai-multe-directii--1187900) |
| Critical reception | 95% on the Tomatometer from 83 reviews; 69% on the Popcornmeter from 50+ user ratings[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world) |
| US release | Limited theatrical release March 15, 2024, distributed by MUBI; gross USA $74.0K[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The film follows Angela, a production assistant on a zero-hours contract (Job with no guaranteed hours; central to Angela's precarity) who is assigned to drive around Bucharest auditioning workers injured in workplace accidents for a corporate safety-at-work video commissioned by a multinational company[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/) • [6](https://www.fandango.com/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023-235209/movie-overview). Exhausted by 16-hour workdays, she often struggles to stay awake at the wheel of her Fiat, which the camera films from the front seat in high-contrast black and white[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/).
Between errands she posts profane TikTok and Instagram rants in the guise of her avatar Bobiță, an [Andrew Tate](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-tate)-style influencer created with a glitchy filter that transforms her into a monobrowed misogynist; she describes the method as "criticism by way of extreme caricature"[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/) • [7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/radu-judes-do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-2023/?pdf=10576).
In the film's second part, the accident victim chosen as the video's case study reveals on camera that his injury resulted from the company's negligence, and the statement ignites a scandal; the company then forces him to reinvent his story to suit its narrative[6](https://www.fandango.com/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023-235209/movie-overview) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world). The BFI program notes identify this character as Ovidiu, played by Ovidiu Pîrșan[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/), while the Fandango synopsis names him Marian[6](https://www.fandango.com/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023-235209/movie-overview).
### Ending
The film closes with a roughly 40-minute epilogue[1](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world). The RogerEbert.com review describes the culmination as an unbroken shot, ostensibly the raw footage of the safety video, in which a poor family is manipulated into undermining their own interests[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-film-review-2024).
## The 1981 film and the doubled Angela
**A second Angela.** Jude repeatedly intersperses color footage from Lucian Bratu's 1981 Romanian film *Angela Moves On* (*Angela merge mai departe*), whose taxi-driving protagonist is also named Angela, often slowing the clips down or zooming in to examine their more filmic texture[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/) • [3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf). He takes over two actors from Bratu's film, Dorina Lazăr and László Miske, along with their characters, and when the older Angela tells the present-day Angela her love story, fragments of the older film serve as flashbacks[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf). The structure connects the two Angelas when Lazăr turns out to be the mother of the semi-paralyzed accident victim, layering fact and fiction, past and present, celluloid and digital, communism and capitalism[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/).
In an interview, Jude said he started from real stories rather than a sociological analysis of work in Romania, but that the feeling of the film came from how many people recognized themselves in this very insecure way of working[4](https://agerpres.ro/cultura/2023/10/17/jude-despre-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-filmul-explodeaza-in-mai-multe-directii--1187900).
## Cast and production
Ilinca Manolache plays Angela and her alter ego Bobiță; [Nina Hoss](https://www.edgepedia.org/nina-hoss) plays Doris Goethe, the head of marketing at the Austrian corporation commissioning the video, presented as the "grandgrand-granddaughter" of Goethe and first seen as a disembodied head in a Zoom session; Ovidiu Pîrșan, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, and [Uwe Boll](https://www.edgepedia.org/uwe-boll) also appear[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world) • [5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/) • [6](https://www.fandango.com/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023-235209/movie-overview). When Jude approached Lazăr to act in the film, she agreed on the condition that she bring her avatar along[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/radu-judes-do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-2023/?pdf=10576).
The film is Jude's tenth feature[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf). Marius Panduru was the director of photography and Cătălin Cristuțiu the editor[1](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world).
## Themes
At its core, the film examines work and how it is exploited: the production assistant's grueling schedule, injured employees whose mishaps supply material for public relations, and the corporate apparatus that turns pain into a safety message[8](https://sightlines.media/film/937085/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023). By tying the present day to a 1981 relic of Romania's last socialist years, the film turns historical era into a theme of its own, contending that labor continues to be extracted under very different economic systems.[8](https://sightlines.media/film/937085/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023)
Jude alludes to different forms of technology throughout the film, from livestreams to TikTok, including a line in which a Romanian video director tells his Austrian boss they can now "crop and make things look as we like" by filming on 8K[7](https://eefb.org/perspectives/radu-judes-do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-2023/?pdf=10576).
Two interludes extend the satire into documentary territory. Angela's own grandparents lie buried under Bucharest, and their graves are to be dug up in a forced exhumation to make way for the expansion of a hotel complex, carried out, Angela is assured, "by the book". Late in the film, after Angela mentions an over-trafficked stretch of highway outside the city, the action pauses for a mute, five-minute montage of roadside grave markers[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/).
## Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 95% Tomatometer from 83 reviews, with 79 fresh and 4 rotten, and an average of rated reviews of 8.40/10; the critics consensus calls it "as unique and breathlessly expansive as its title"[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world). Adam Nayman of The Ringer wrote that, despite the art-house aesthetics and nearly three-hour running time, "this is what a killer comedy looks like in 2024"[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world).
In Romania, the film drew far fewer cinema admissions than Jude's previous feature *Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn*, which had won the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear), even though the new film screened without pandemic-era restrictions; the Romanian film critic Mihai Fulger suggested that a Berlinale trophy counted for more with Romanian audiences than a Swiss festival prize[3](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf).
## References
1. [Film Fest Gent: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world)
2. [Rotten Tomatoes: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_not_expect_too_much_from_the_end_of_the_world)
3. [Mihai Fulger, "Cea mai exploatată fată din lume," Revista Film, nr. 4/2023](https://revistafilm.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FILM-4_2023.pdf)
4. [AGERPRES: Jude, despre "Nu aştepta prea mult de la sfârşitul lumii"](https://agerpres.ro/cultura/2023/10/17/jude-despre-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-filmul-explodeaza-in-mai-multe-directii--1187900)
5. [BFI Southbank Programme Notes: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/new%20releases/2024/03/08/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world/)
6. [Fandango: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)](https://www.fandango.com/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023-235209/movie-overview)
7. [EEFB: Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World](https://eefb.org/perspectives/radu-judes-do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-nu-astepta-prea-mult-de-la-sfarsitul-lumii-2023/?pdf=10576)
8. [Sightlines: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)](https://sightlines.media/film/937085/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-2023)
9. [RogerEbert.com: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/do-not-expect-too-much-from-the-end-of-the-world-film-review-2024)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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