Film Archive

Afterlife

East of the West - Competition 2014 / Utóélet / Hungary 2014

After Mózes starts seeing the ghost of his authoritative, recently-deceased father, the diffident and insecure young man is forced to take matters into his own hands: he has to deal with the relationship with his father once and for all. An energetic debut from Virág Zomborácz in a refreshing blend of genres, combining humorous episodes verging on the bizarre with elements of high drama.

Synopsis

Mózes is a diffident, insecure young man who has finished theology studies and lives with his family in a remote village. His relationship with his authoritative father is rather complicated; the pastor doesn’t take his son very seriously and treats him with disdain. One day, the father dies unexpectedly – and his ghost begins appearing to Mózes, the only one in the family who can see him. The young man struggles to figure out how his father’s spirit might find peace, and it seems that, for the first time in his life, he’s been put in a situation in which he must take things firmly into his own two hands. At the same time, this is an opportunity to transform his relationship to his father. This energetic debut from writer-director Virág Zomborácz inventively handles the topic of mourning and coming to terms with the loss of someone close. In a refreshing blend of genres that includes magical realism, the movie combines humorous episodes verging on the bizarre with elements of high drama.

About the film

90 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Virág Zomborácz / Screenplay Virág Zomborácz / Dir. of Photography Gergely Pohárnok / Music Ádám Balázs / Editor Károly Szalai / Producer Ferenc Pusztai / Production KMH FILM, Magyar Filmunió / Hungarian National Film Fund / Cast Márton Kristóf, László Gálffi, Eszter Csákányi / Contact National Film Institute Hungary

About the director

Virág Zomborácz (b. 1985, Budapest) finished studies in screenwriting and script editing from the University of Theater and Film Arts Budapest in 2009. She has created a number of successful shorts, including The Cat’s Role in French Literature (A macska szerepe a francia irodalomban, 2006), Track Change (2007), and Something Blue (Valami kék 2011), which screened at many international festivals. In 2012 she wrote and codirected the short animated film Dipendenza. She also has a number of commercials to her credit, and has lent screenwriting skills to HBO television series. The script for Afterlife, her feature debut, brought her a MEDIA Talent prize at Cannes 2011.