You're cordially invited to the upcoming film screening hosted by the Screening Europe film club. Join us for the Hungarian/Romanian film Without Air (2023) directed by Katalin Moldovai.
An innocent movie recommendation by a literature high-school teacher, Ana Bauch, ends up in an accusation put forth by a parent to the school's principal. This sets off a series of events that causes Ana to slip away from the solid ground she thought she stood on.
Ana, a literature teacher is being accused of misconduct for suggesting Agnieszka Holland’s movie - Total Eclipse – to her 17-year-old students so they can better understand Rimbaud’s work and life. The movie contains homosexuality, which a parent objects to. Ana starts a struggle to justify herself, and this causes an absurd chain reaction. The school’s principal, Eva, slowly withdraws, and this affects good working relationships. The scandal that follows has unforeseeable consequences upon Ana’s life, and the life of the student, Victor, whose father makes the complaint. As the case ends up in different court investigations, the post-socialist fixations comes to surface, and the air around Ana, and Viktor, slowly disappears. The main themes of the film are the questions of acceptance, being a teacher, the nature of power and oppression.
