It’s summer in a small suburb of Rome, Italy. Children are swimming in a garden pool while the adults are having dinner. Then an anonymous voice and views from a hidden camera start to reveal all kinds of hidden depravity: a man’s longing for his neighbor’s wife, a son watching pornography on his father’s smart phone, and a boy obsessed with pregnant teenage girl. 

Bad Tales is the second film from Fabio and Damiano D’innocenzo, who won Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival this year. This film exposes the truth of human society through strange faces hidden in weary routines. A middle-aged man’s dry voice loosely weaves the narratives together, meeting an audiovisual bricolage with ‘80s retro images and grotesque close-ups of everyday objects, producing the black comedy style miniature universe. (Jin PARK)