A man walks out of a single locked room after three decades and meets the entire world for the first time in this 1993 Australian-Italian drama from director Rolf de Heer.
What is Bad Boy Bubby about?
Bubby has known nothing but four walls his whole life, kept there by a mother who convinced him the outside air would kill him. A visit from a man claiming to be his father breaks that isolation open, and Bubby finds himself loose in a city he has no framework to understand. He copies phrases and gestures from strangers word for word, tries on jobs, bands, and relationships with no instruction manual for any of it, and moves through a series of encounters that swing between comic, tender and unsettling. The film treats his re-entry into modern life less as a redemption arc than as a strange, unfiltered study of how much of human behavior is learned rather than instinctive, using unconventional sound design to put the audience inside his disoriented point of view.
About the cast
Nicholas Hope carries the film in the title role, with Ralph Cotterill, Claire Benito, Syd Brisbane, Ullie Birve, Natalie Carr, Celine O'Leary and Carmel Johnson filling out the string of characters Bubby crosses paths with once he is outside.
Context & significance
A joint Australian and Italian production, the film sits at the edge of the crime and comedy genres it is catalogued under, using dark humor and an unusual sound mix rather than a conventional plot to hold attention. It has built a lasting cult following on the strength of its lead performance and its refusal to soften Bubby's story into something more comfortable, a reputation that has followed it well beyond its original theatrical run.
Watching Bad Boy Bubby on Ktime
Bad Boy Bubby can be watched on K-Time with a free account login, part of a catalogue built for Persian-speaking audiences around the world.