Mastroianni812

'Milosc, seks & pandemia' follows four different people as they navigate the divide between their sexual desires and their own self-image in the period overlapping with the beginning of Covid pandemic in Poland. They are: an ambitious female journalist who picks up a beef with a pick-up artist, a female photographer who falls in love with one of her models, a feminist who starts an affair with an Egyptian cab driver and an Amish youth who becomes a male stripper and gigolo after clashing with his family.

Halfway through the movie, after the pandemic finally starts, our four main characters meet in a church, where the priest recants the parable of the sower. This could work as a metaphor for the movie itself, as the characters have different opportunities to experience love but don't let it blossom (one character unsubtly states that the true pandemic is 'a pandemic of loneliness').

In this context, Covid does not act as a specific plot point (nobody even gets sick with it!) but as an accellerator for this isolation and the various characters' worst tendencies. The movie expresses no doubt misantrophistic tendencies and paints an unflattering portrait of Polish society, and yet it is not completely hopeless. When finally one character breaks the loop of constant hate and revenge, she is rewarded with the most literal deus ex machina since the times of Greek theater.

Final note - Vega stops the movie for several scenes in order to give us an advertisement of a currency exchange website. It is done in such a shameless way that I can't help but admire it.