maël mubalegh

films


OUT OF CHARACTER
Swiss Films

fiction short, 14', 2026
official selection: Riga IFF 2026, international shorts competition

synopsis: On the eve of a vitrectomy in Cluj, a young ophthalmologist (Mihai Șaramet) confides in his psychoanalyst (Radu Jude), haunted by nightmares in which he botches the surgery and destroys his patient’s vision.

"An Andalusian Dog (1929) by Luis Buñuel, but without the razor and the cut. The French director Mubalegh describes his film as 'a space of words both concrete and abstract, in which psyche and body blur so completely that identity itself seems to dissolve into fiction.' He calls his latest short a session of psychoanalysis, with Mihai Șaramet playing the role of the patient, while the psychotherapist is played by the contemporary classic, Romanian director Radu Jude. The film was created as a study work in the University of Art and Design in Lausanne during students’ meeting with Jude. Mubalegh takes a step forward – he has created a collective cinema session." (festival's catalogue text)