Reporting the totalitarianism ‘witch-hunt’

Emi (Katia Pascariu), a history teacher at a prominent school in Romania, finds herself under threat. Her sex tape with her husband is disclosed and uploaded on an adult website. Emi is called into a parent-teacher conference. She is under all sorts of ridicule and insult by parents and teachers pretending to be noble. Although Emi is a victim of a video leakage, she is cornered by a witch-hunt.

‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ (photo) opening Thursday, won the highest Golden Bear award at 2021 Berlin International Film Festival. In the film, which is divided into three parts, Part 1 shoots Emi of her day when embarrassed Emi from video leakage is walking around the street as if chasing after her. Part 2 suspends the conventional narrative and exhibits some 70 keywords and images including the notorious Romanian dictator Ceaucescu, racial discrimination one by one and explains in subtitle the keyword related contents. For example, the movie first shows the national poet Mihai Eminescu’s name as a keyword and then shows a note with his face imprinted then adds the explanation “our conscience.” Part 3 is about what Emi goes through during the parent-teacher conference.

The keywords introduced in Part 2 are closely connected to Part 3. In Part 3, parents express inconsistency Director Radu Jude leads the narration with a new dramatic interpretation as well as humorously criticizes the dictatorship, totalitarianism, gypsy discrimination, and various modern hypocrisy in the form of black comedy.


Hyo-Ju Son hjson@donga.com