Watch our movie in the Verzio Film Festival

Synopsis

As Hungary’s political climate becomes increasingly radicalized, Virág, a former green politician, loses faith in the democratic parliament of Hungary and retires from politics. She and her musician partner Nóra decide to adopt a child and focus on building a family together. With a sensitive lens and close access, directors Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics follow the two women through their long and ultimately successful adoption process to bring home their young daughter. But tensions begin to rise between the two as Virág thrives in her role as a mother and Nóra struggles to find her place within the family. As the rising tides of right wing propaganda in Hungary begin to overflow into their family, their lives hit a boiling point and they must face the difficult decision of whether to leave their country behind.

Trailer

Festivals and prizes

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival – Persister programme (2020)

26th Sarajevo Film Festival, Competition Programme, Documentary Film (2020)

31. International Queer Film Festival | Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg (2020)

Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) Slver Eye Award nominee (2020)

27th Minsk International Film Festival Listapad (2020)
in documentary competition

57th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (2020)
in offical competition

DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (2021)
in official competition

7th Budapest International Documentary Festival (2021)
Competition of Hungarian Films // Empire of Love
Award: Special mention award in Competition of Hungarian films

Zinegoak – 18th Bilbao International Gaylesbitrans Film and Performing Arts Festival (2021)
Offical Selection – DOK Section

23rd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2021)
Top Docs Section

19th The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (2021)
international competition of Great Reportage

15th International Female Film Festival Malmö Sweden – IFEMA (2021)
in the offical program

13th Millenium International Documentary Film Festival (2021)
in the international competition

23rd One World – International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (2021)
“Panorama” Category

19th Festival Internacional de Cine de Derechos Humanos FICDH (2021)
“Miradas De Género” Section

Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz (2021)
Competition Documentary
Award: CROSSING EUROPE Social Awareness Award – Best Documentary

1st Magyar Mozgókép Festival (2021)
in the offical program

Moscow International Documentary Film Festival DOKer (2021)
Main Competition
Award: Best Feature Documentray and Best Editing (Flóra Erdélyi)

26th Chéries-Chéris LMBTQ Film Festival, Paris (2021)
in documentary competition
Award: Jury Prize

6th Festival de Cine LGTBI (2021)
Award: Audience Award // Special mention by the grand jury and the student jury

20th Transilvania International Film Festival -TIFF (2021)
Hungarian Day category

12th Bujtor István Film Festival (2021)
in documentary competition
Award: Special Award

Nepatogus Kinas / Inconvenient Films (2021)
“We are Everything” category

28th queerfilm festival Bremen (2021)

18th Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (2021)
Hungarian Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

Available to stream May 28 to June 24 – Includes Q&A
The film is geo-blocked to Ontario, Canada.

www.hotdocs.ca

WATCH

Cast and Crew

Director Asia Dér, Sári Haragonics

Producer Sára László, Marcell Gerő

Co-producer Noémi Veronika Szakonyi

Executive Producer Hanka Kastelicová, Anna Závorszky

Production Campfilm, HBO Europe
In association with Match Frame Productions

Director of Photography Asia Dér

Editor Flóra Erdélyi

Sound Sári Haragonics

Sound designer Tamás Bohács, Rudolf Várhegyi, Márk Puszta

Supported by
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program with support
from Open Society Foundations
Hungarian Film Incentive

Developed
within the framework of EURODOC
at Verzio DocLab 2017 – CEU Mirabaud Media Lab
with the support of EAST EUROPEAN FORUM 2017 organized by the Institute of Documentary Film, Czech Republic

ASIA DÉR graduated as a documentary director from the DOCnomads MA program. Her graduation film was nominated for the best short film at the Hungarian Film Festival. Currently she is doing her doctoral studies about how the relation of the director and the main character effects the dramaturgy and the psyche in longitudinal documentaries. She is working on her second feature length documentary, I haven’t died, about a middle aged man, who is aiming to face his true self afters surviving pancreatic cancer. She participated with her films at ZagrebDox Pro, DOCCIRCLE, and the Docu Rough Cut Boutique. She is a presidium member of the Hungarian Documentary Association.

Selected films:

Letters from Mom
• experimental documentary, 11 mins, 2016.
• Nominated for the best short film at the Hungarian Filmweek, 2016.

Burdened by the past
• portrait documentary, 60 mins, 2017
• Nominated for the best documentary at the
Hungarian Filmweek, 2017

SÁRI HARAGONICS has graduated at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest with an MA in documentary film directing. She is also an honours graduate in media production at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK. Her graduation film, Coming face to face is about what inner springs can one still find inside the family to overcome pain and accept the absence of a Mother. The film has been screened at several festivals and won the ZOOM-IN competition at the Verzio International Documentary Festival in 2015. Sari continues that path in her next documentary-feature, Don’t worry, Sári! about the absence of mothers in her family and how that is affecting their family dynamics. She has recently started her Doctoral studies researching how participatory video can affect our social relations – focusing on underprivileged children and youngsters.

Selected films:

Coming face to face
• short documentary, 36 minutes, 2015
• Main Prize, Verzió International Documentary Film Festival ZOOM IN competition

Culture-face
• portraits documentary, 52 minutes, 2004
• Student Prize, Dialektus Film Festival