What do you expect to be unexpected?
Review by Elis Rosca
Tourists (2025), a short film by Eunhyoung Ju, mixes pseudo-paranormal wit, tall tales, and slow burn tension into a single premise. Set in an allegedly haunted forest in Cluj Napoca, Romania, a tour guide plays his magic card: “Here, a UFO was photographed once…” to sell a pricey tour. Despite its whimsical tone, the trajectory maintains its mystery.
The film works almost as a living metaphor, trapping the tourists both in the forest and on the screen. A group of young people join the jaded guide for a night walk. As they set up a bonfire, an oddly ironic appearance, or rather disappearance, overturns the expectations of both the guide and the tourists. Oscillating between droll and serious, morbid and unreal, the film constructs a believable setup for such uncanny events.
Both style and structure rely on slight contrasts. The intrinsic silence of the space is interrupted by the semi awkwardness of human interaction. Likewise, the imagery balances the pitch black night with lightened silhouettes that act as expressive devices. The short reveals itself bit by bit, playing with expectation at a steady pace. What truly adds sprinkles on top is Andrei Mărgineanu’s dry and subtle performance. His character becomes a motif for the film’s own structure: slightly two faced, but never entirely revealed. The film does not take itself too seriously and does not forget to include archetypal Romanian humor and inside jokes. More important than life and death? A good old grill.
Tourists premiered in the Fiction section at Cinema Paradiso. It is a pseudo absurd drama set in the middle of the woods, and its title can be read as literal background information, since the director was briefly based in Romania during the shoot.
It’s a safe watch for both ghost believers and skeptics alike.
