It’s summer in Budapest and high school student Abel can’t focus on his final exams because he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend Janka. The bookish Janka also suffers from unrequited love for the married history teacher Jakob, who had previous conflict with Abel’s conservative father. The tensions in a polarized society unexpectedly surface, and Abel’s final history (matura) exam becomes a national scandal. Through the story of a dawdling highschooler who gets his 15 minutes of fame thanks to a right-wing tabloid, Reisz’s pointed social satire delivers an insightful and acerbic commentary on social polarization, the narrowing spectrum of diverse perspectives, and the trivialization of politics. It is therefore not surprising that Viktor Orbán’s government did not grant funding for the film, and Reisz shot his third film in just 20 days with the help of friends, family and a film crew of 17 very young but enthusiastic people with no previous filmmaking experience. But thanks to his empathy for the portrayed characters (on both sides of the political spectrum) and his affinity for comedic situations in Hungarian households, Reisz does not overwhelm the film with aggressive rhetoric or grandiose metaphors. He does not relativize or demonize the conflicting parties but leaves the possibility for the younger generation, embodied in Abel, to find a way out of the bilge of nationalist demagoguery and inciting mentality, baser emotions and fruitless resentment, even if at first glance they seem dull and disinterested.
Awards and Festivals:
Venice Film Festival (2023) – Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Chicago International Film Festival (2023) – Gold Hugo for Best Feature, Silver Hugo for Best Screenplay; Uruguay International Film Festival (2024) – Best Director; Las Palmas Film Festival (2024) – Best Film; Les Arcs European Film Festival (2024) – Cineuropa Award, Best Actor (Adonyi-Walsh Gáspár); Kosmorama (2024) – Best Film; Tertio Millenio Film Fest (2024) – Young Jury Award; IFF Febiofest Bratislava (2024) – Best Film
Gábor Reisz is a Hungarian director. He graduated from the Eötvös Loránd University with a degree in film history and film theory, as well as earning a degree in film direction from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. His debut feature film For Some Inexplicable Reason (2014) premiered at the Karlovy Vary IFF and became a cult film in Hungary. In 2015, Reisz was invited to participate in the Cannes Film Festival Residence program, where he developed his second feature film, Bad Poems (2018). The film won 16 prizes, including the one for Hungarian Film of the Year in 2018.
