Image from 'Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc'
Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc,
by Romanian Radu Jude, has won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2021, the first to be held online, with viewings for five days for the industry and the press, and which will be repeated with public screenings in summer.
The jury, made up of six winning filmmakers from previous berlinals, has justified their decision that the drama captures the spirit of modern times.
The fascination for the far right is rampant in Europe
In the footsteps of the sulfur miner in Java
And it is true.
Jude's tragedy begins with a homemade porn recording, made just for them by a masked couple.
After those three minutes of sex in which the woman's face is seen at one point, the action moves to today's Romania, to the streets of Bucharest, where the camera follows the wandering of the protagonist, a school teacher who she tries to remedy the irreparable: the video has been leaked through social networks, and on the adult video platform Pornhub they have even classified her as a “hot mature teacher”.
The viewer sees the teacher, with the appropriate mask, walking talking on the phone and despairing.
But the sound of
Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc,
which bears the international title
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn,
is much richer.
From what is heard on the mobile phone and the loose phrases of passersby, the viewer builds an agile X-ray of the here and now, which is Bucharest as any city could be.
Jude, however, takes the end to another tone, the astracanada, to portray the Romanian society with a broad brush at the meeting of parents of students that is going to decide whether to expel the teacher or not, and even plays with the possibility of several endings.
Jude is not a stranger: he began as an assistant to Costa-Gavras in
Amen
and to another prestigious Romanian filmmaker, Cristi Puiu, in
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
before becoming a reference name for the rich cinema of his country.
In his filmography,
Aferim!
(Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale in 2015), the documentary
The Dead Nation
(2017),
I don't mind being a barbarian
(2018) or
Uppercase Print
(2020), which premiered in the previous edition of the German competition.
Irrefutable (it was the best film in competition) is the Grand Jury Prize to the Japanese
Guzen to sozo,
by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the director of
Happî awâ
(2015) and
Asako I and II
(2018),
filmmaker who brilliantly repeats his usual game of symmetries, his fantastic depiction of time here through three stories about human relationships, very sentimental, very emotional, and all three centered on a female character.
The most debatable jury prize went
to Maria Speth's
three-hour German documentary on contemporary German education
Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse
.
From this edition, the Berlinale will award its performance awards without distinction of gender: one to the protagonist, another to the secondary.
The best lead performance has been taken by the German actress Maren Eggert, for
Ich bin dein Mensch,
which takes place in the near future in which humanoid robots designed to provide happiness and fulfill all wishes - and all is all - of their owners.
Eggert plays an anthropologist who for three weeks will have a handsome humanoid to her full enjoyment.
The best secondary performance has been obtained by the Hungarian Lilla Kizlinger, for her work in
Rengeteg - mindenhol látlak.
The award for best director has also gone to Hungary, for the newcomer Dénes Nagy for
Természetes fény,
a war drama that shows the atrocities committed by the Hungarian army, an ally of the Nazis, during World War II in Russia.
There were two prestigious directors competing at the Berlinale.
The French Céline Sciamma has left empty, despite all the cinema that she condenses in the 72 minutes of
Petit Maman,
another of her inquiries into the world of children;
Korean Hong Sangsoo has at least gotten the best screenplay award for
Introduction.
Finally, the prize list is closed by the award for the greatest artistic contribution, which in this edition, underlines the jury, has been the work of editing by the Mexican Yibrán Asuad in
A film of police officers,
by Alonso Ruizpalacios.
The film by the director of
Güeros
y
Museo
reflects what it is to be a policeman in Mexico City today, and for this he has played with the times, the looks at the camera and the dialogues in a stupendous formal bet.