The Diary of a Chambermaid — English subs

The young Romanian Gianina works as a housekeeper and nanny for the wealthy Donnadieu family in Bordeaux. During the day, she cooks, cleans and looks after Louen, her employers’ young son. In the evenings, she rehearses with an amateur theatre group, playing the role of a maid in an adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s The Diary of a Chambermaid. As she navigates life in the household of the self-proclaimed progressive and open-minded Donnadieus, Gianina’s own daughter is growing up with her grandmother in Romania.

The distance between mother and daughter grows ever greater, but as Christmas approaches, a reunion finally seems within reach. With The Diary of a Chambermaid, Romanian director Radu Jude gives Octave Mirbeau’s celebrated novel a contemporary and idiosyncratic twist. Infused with his trademark dark humour and razor-sharp social commentary, this meta-adaptation takes a closer look at contemporary class relations and labour migration in Europe.