Award winning Romanian writer/director Radu Jude (Afreim!) has made an inventive and unconventional comedy/drama which opens, unannounced, with an explicit long homemade sex video, with masks on. This will shock the audience out of their comfort zones.
Emi (Katia Pascuariu) is a schoolteacher married to (a mostly unseen) Eugen who makes a film of their love making,which finds its way onto the internet after it is posted to porn sites.
The film is made in three parts which are introduced in a light-hearted manner with the chapter titles written in white on a pretty pink background, in contrast to the subject matter.
Part One. The day before a meeting with scandalized parents and teachers demanding Emi’s dismissal from the school Emi walks the streets of Bucharest. She is frustrated by Covid restrictions and making nervous calls to her husband, while dealing with her problems.
Part Two. A montage of symbols of the times – colonialism, consumerism, church and the nationalist nature of Romanian society.
Part Three. In which there are three alternative endings to the film. In the first she is acquitted. In the second she is acquitted and resigns. And in the third she is convicted, turns into a superhero, traps the parents and teachers in a net, and forces them to fellate a dildo.
The film was made mostly outdoors with social distancing and mask wearing. As a social satire it will create discussion and a strong reaction.
It won the Golden Bear Award at the 71stBerlin International Film Festival, and has been selected as the Romanian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94thAcademy Awards. And it’s been nominated for seven other awards.
Part of The Berlinale Jury Statement says “The Golden Bear goes to a film that has that rare and essential quality of a lasting art work.
It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. It attacks the spectator, evokes disagreement, but leaves no-one within a safe distance.”
106 minutes.
Romanian language with English sub-titles.
Contains explicit sex scenes.
Showing at Luna Leederville from November 25.
Watch the trailer…
