En rumensk satire med en amatørpornofilm sentralt for handlingen ble i dag tildelt Gullbjørnen for beste film på Berlinalen. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn skildrer hvordan en hjemmesnekret pornofilm av en lærer og hennes ektemann skaper oppstandelse blant elevenes foreldre i dagens Romania, og leder til en heksejakt. Filmen, som ble skutt under pandemien, er en av de første filmene på festivalen som er laget under de nye restriksjonene. Regissøren Radu Jude er kanskje mest kjent for å vinne regiprisen på Berlinalen i 2015 for det historiske dramaet Aferim!.

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn fikk skryt av Varietys anmelder for å skildre pornografisk sex med en distansert og bevisst holdning. Mye kunne gått galt, men regissør Jude makter stort sett å balansere humor og alvor, mener anmelderen.

“By opening with the sex tape, Jude tips his hand as to his own position — namely, that he’s not (and doesn’t think we should be) offended by the explicit imagery on display. These days, ordinary folks encounter far worse simply browsing the internet, and while such sights remain relatively taboo in cinema, “Loony Porn” serves them up with a laugh. This alone feels revolutionary, as movies tend to treat sex with stylized seriousness, whereas the real thing can often be clumsy and awkward. Genuine intercourse might be downright hilarious if observed by a disinterested third party, just as Jude presents it (with ridiculous stripper-wig role play and what sounds like an off-screen mother-in-law shouting banal questions from the other room).”

Hollywood reporters anmelder var også i hovedsak tilfreds, tross enkelte innvendinger,

“It makes for a bumpy ride, audacious and witty in places, heavy-handed and disjointed in others…Behind its anarchic humor and unorthodox structure, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is an old-fashioned morality play about the true nature of obscenity. Jude’s barbed satirical tone frequently recalls the late 1960s peak of the Czech New Wave and the Yugoslavian “Black Wave” movement, which mingled sexually daring imagery with genuinely courageous criticism of repressive Communist regimes. That ingrained tradition of Eastern Bloc cynicism toward authority clearly lives on.”

Juryen, som har bestått av filmskapere, ikke kritikere, er imidlertid ikke i tvil:

“The Golden Bear goes to a film which 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. Of this very moment of human existence. It does so by provoking the spirit of our time (i.e., zeitgeist), by slapping it, by challenging it to a duel. And while doing that, it also challenges this present moment in cinema, shaking, with the same camera movement, our social and our cinematic conventions. It is an elaborated film as well as a wild one, clever and childish, geometrical and vibrant, imprecise in the best way. It attacks the spectator, evokes disagreement, but leaves no one with a safety distance.”

Alle prisvinnerne fra hovedkonkurransen:

Golden Bear for Best Film: Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn) by Radu Jude

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: Guzen to sozo (Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Silver Bear Jury Prize: Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and His Class) by Maria Speth

Silver Bear for Best Director: Dénes Nagy for Természetes fény (Natural Light) 

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: Maren Eggert in Ich bin dein Mensch (I’m Your Man) by Maria Schrader

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: Lilla Kizlinger in Rengeteg – mindenhol látlak (Forest – I See You Everywhere) by Bence Fliegauf

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Hong Sangsoo for Inteurodeoksyeon (Introduction) by Hong Sangsoo

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Yibrán Asuad for the editing of Una película de policías (A Cop Movie) by Alonso Ruizpalacios