Welcome back! Well, we’re down to our last five installments of Mubi Monday in 2024. This week we’ll take a look at a Romanian short film from director Radu Jude that collected quite a few awards…The Tube with a Hat (2006).
Title: The Tube with a Hat
Director: Radu Jude
Runtime: 25 minutes
Released: November 1, 2006 (France – Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival)
Available to stream: Exclusively on Mubi
On its surface, The Tube with a Hat (2006) is a rather simple film. A kid (Marian Bratu) and his father (Gabriel Spahiu) take their broken television across town to get it repaired, hopefully before 6pm so the kid can watch a Bruce Lee movie that’s airing. However, there’s quite a bit of heart packed into a brief twenty-five-minute runtime.
While there isn’t an effort to gloss over the poverty that this family lives in, there’s also not an unnecessary amount of time spent focusing on it either. Instead, director Radu Jude sprinkles in warmth and humor throughout their journey across town. Be it carrying the television across a haphazard bridge, onto a bus, or even the journey the father goes on to find the right replacement tube needed.
Muddy roads and grey skies are all the father and son see on their journey across town. This would make for a rather bleak watch, however, the interactions between the two and the genuine warmth and love between them, allows their bond to shine through.
There are no big dramatic moments or reveals, just a bunch of little details that draw you in and compel you to invest in the relationship between father and son. The film becomes more than just a journey to fix a busted television, it’s about the simple victories in life. And sometimes, the simple victories in life can mean the world.
So, have you seen The Tube with a Hat (2006)?
If so, let me know what you thought of it! You can drop a comment below or reach out to me over on Bluesky.
As always, give me a follow over on Letterboxd to stay caught up with everything else that I’ve been watching.