Film Archive

I am Not Your Friend

Official Selection - Competition 2009 / Nem vagyok a barátod / Hungary 2009

Sara loves Mark and they are expecting a baby. He loves her too, but he also loves Sophie. She has eyes for Andras, it’s just that he’s married to Rita, who looks after young Natasha – and so on and so forth. His new project confirms director György Pálfi (Taxidermia) as an experimental provocateur. This highly cynical mosaic of disaffected relationships came together in 20 days of improvisation by the filmmakers and nine amateur actors.

Synopsis

Sára loves Márk and they are expecting a baby. He loves her as well, but he also loves Sophie. Sophie doesn’t like being cheated; she’d rather someone pampered her. That someone could be András, it’s just that he’s already pampering his wife, Rita. She in turn has a mercenary interest in caring for young Natasha, whom everyone would be happy to take advantage of. And what about Jimmy and especially Etele, who, by the way, has the hots for Sára? This group of contemporary Budapest inhabitants is bound together by complicated, mercenary relations, extorting emotions, and humiliating bonds of dependence. But then, in similar situations, men and women behave in different ways... His new project confirms director György Pálfi as an experimental provocateur. This highly cynical mosaic of alienating relationships came together in 20 days of improvisation by the filmmakers and nine amateur actors. A short documentary focusing on four-year-old preschoolers opens the movie – and of course, not even the little ones’ friendships could be described as idyllic...

About the film

100 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director György Pálfi / Screenplay György Pálfi, Zsófia Ruttkay, Attila Réthly a herci / and the actors / Dir. of Photography István Dala, Dávid Lukács / Editor Réka Lemhényi / Producer Péter Miskolczi, Gábor Váradi, György Pálfi / Production Eurofilm Studio / Cast István Szüle, Gyöngyvér Országh, Corbisier Kim, Kamilla Fátyol, Zsolt Páll, Csaba Gosztonyi, Csaba Czene, Kati Farkas, Eszter Tóth / Contact National Film Institute Hungary, Eurofilm Studio

About the director

György Pálfi (b. 1974, Budapest) started shooting experimental Super 8 movies in 1987. He began making a name for himself while still in school at Budapest’s Theater and Film Academy (1995–2002) where he studied direction. He drew international attention with his writer-director feature debut Hukkle (2002), honored with a European Film Award for Discovery of the Year, and at festivals in Sochi, Cottbus, and Budapest. In 2003, he shot the episode "Shaman vs. Icarus” / "Táltosember” for the film A Bus Came... (Jött egy busz...). His second feature, Taxidermia, quickly became known for its kinkiness and violence. He often writes the scripts for his films and even occasionally acts.