Magnolia Pictures announced today that they have acquired North American rights to acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s (AFERIM!) provocative comedy BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN. Filmed entirely during Bucharest’s lockdown, the Berlin Golden Bear winner for Best Film follows a high school teacher struggling with the fallout of her sex tape leaking online. Magnolia plans to release the film later this year.
Emi (Katia Pascariu), a schoolteacher, finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is uploaded onto the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender. BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN is a film in three loosely connected parts: a walk in the city of Bucharest, then a playful essay on obscenities, all culminating, in the third part, in an incendiary comic confrontation.
“BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN is a wildly entertaining and imaginative film with a lot on its mind,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “Radu Jude has staked his claim as a high priest of cinema.”
Radu Jude added, “I sincerely hope this film will be ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished’, as Shakespeare wrote.”
Directed and written by Radu Jude, BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN is produced by microFILM Romania and co-produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg), endorfilm (Czech Republic) and Kinorama (Croatia) in association with Bord Cadre Films (Switzerland), Sovereign Films (UK). Ada Solomon produced the film. Co-producers are Paul Thiltges, Adrien Chef, Jiří Konečný, Ankica Jurić Tilić. Associate producers are Dan Wechsler, Jamal Zeinal-Zade, Andreas Roald.
The deal was negotiated by Magnolia EVP Dori Begley and SVP of Acquisitions John Von Thaden, and by Ioanna Stais of Heretic Outreach on behalf of the filmmakers.