EXCLUSIVE: Radu Jude is a Locarno Film Festival regular, and he returns to the Swiss event this year with his latest Dracula, for which we can share a first look clip above. 

Shot and set in Transylvania, where the vampire myth began, the film sees Jude embark on an epic odyssey to make Dracula great again.

The Locarno premiere will mark Jude’s second major festival outing this year, after Kontinental ‘25, which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at this year’s Berlinale. 

1-2 Special has acquired all North American rights to the film and has described it as a trademark Jude black comedy paying tribute to one of cinema’s greatest legends and featuring “vampires, zombies, blood, sex, AI images and car chases”.

Teasing the project as last year’s Locarno Film Festival, Jude said: “I am from Romania. My father is actually from Transylvania. It’s time that someone from Romania did a Dracula film. It’s only Hollywood that has done it 1,000 times. We shouldn’t let Hollywood dominate our Dracula.” 

In the press notes for this year’s festival, Jude said the film “deconstructs the myth of Dracula through dozens of stories – absurd, pulpy, literary, playful, political, excessive, naughty, fantastic, or realistic.”

He described the projects as “A film about cinema itself.”

The film’s cast features Adonis Tanța, Oana Maria Zaharia, Gabriel Spahiu, Ilinca Manolache, Alexandru Dabija, Andrada Balea, Doru Talos, Serban Pavlu, Lukas Miko, and Alexandra Harapu.

Dracula is produced by Romania’s Saga Film, with Austria’s Nabis Filmgroup, Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distribution, Brazil’s RT Features, Luxembourg’s Samsa Film, Switzerland’s Bord Cadre Films, the UK’s Sovereign Films, and Romania’s MicroFILM.

Luxbox is handling international sales. Bord Cadre Films is the Swiss distributor. 

Check out the first look clip above.