Bad Luck

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Babardeala cu bucluc sau porno balamuc
Directed by Radu Jude
Romania | 2021 | Narrative
106 minutes | Romanian

Schoolteacher Emi (Katia Pascariu) finds her career and reputation under threat by her peers and the school board after a personal sex tape made with her husband is accidentally leaked on the Internet. Forced to meet with parents and other teachers demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure. Radu Jude (“Aferim!”) delivers an incendiary mix of unconventional form, irreverent humor, and scathing commentary on hypocrisy and prejudice in our societies and the dangers of knee-jerk reactions to social media. SLIFF also features another of Jude’s recent films, “Uppercase Print.” IndieWire writes: “The brilliance of ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,’ Romanian director Radu Jude’s astonishing Berlinale Golden Bear-winning satire, comes from a most unusual combination by jamming together two very different kind of movies that shouldn’t work in harmony, but end up making perfect sense. The filmmaker’s bold approach suggests what might happen if someone spliced a late-period Jean-Luc Godard essay film into the middle of ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,’ with such mesmerizing results that you just have to roll with it. One of European cinema’s most unclassifiable auteurs has delivered the bitter pill we deserve.”