“I think TikTok videos are just another form of cinema.” Radu Jude, who has drawn attention in recent years with provocative statements like this one comparing social media content to cinema, draws inspiration in his new film from Octave Mirbeau’s novel of the same title. Here, the traditional diary is replaced by video calls and recordings made with a phone, while class conflict in Mirbeau’s novel is reimagined through the lens of cheap Eastern European labour migrating to the West. The story follows Gianina, a Romanian woman working as a maid, cook, and nanny for a wealthy French family. In her rare moments of respite, she either sends videos to her distant daughter or rehearses for an amateur theater production, playing the maid in an adaptation of Mirbeau’s very work. While both the progressive French family and Gianina harbor well-meaning intentions, the boundaries of their goodwill are pushed to the limit by an unexpected event on the eve of the Christmas holidays.