Social Media, Female Victimisation and Autonomy in Contemporary Hungarian and Romanian Cinema

Abstract

In recent years, a number of Hungarian and Romanian films incorporated new media techniques and mechanisms in order to thematize the paradoxical effect of social media platforms which, besides connecting individuals and communities, can become a vehicle of their social isolation. However, while Hungarian films like I Hope You Die Next Time:) (Remélem legközelebb sikerül meghalnod, Mihály Schwechtje, 2018) and FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, Attila Hartung, 2019) present teenage, male individuals (mis)using social media as part of their coming of age process, fuelled by a desperate need to connect with their peers, in one of the latest, award-winning features of versatile Romanian director Radu Jude, Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn (Bărbădeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc, 2021) social media is challenging the (sexual, gendered) autonomy of the female protagonist and fuelling a heated socio-political debate around sexual roles, liberties and moral responsibilities in a contemporary Romanian society torn by contradictory value systems. Regarding social media as a platform of identity quests and moral attitudes, my article aims to situate these films in the Hungarian and Romanian cinematic traditions, analysing and comparing them in terms of cultural representations of female and male victimisation, as well as agency and autonomy. I will argue that these films exemplify the gendered modes of self-representations (selfies) and gazes in social media and beyond, a model subverted only by Jude’s film reiterating the female flâneur as the freely moving subject of the gaze.