Film Archive

Wild Roots

East of the West Competition 2021 / Külön falka / Hungary, Slovak Republic 2021

Tibor and Niki, father and daughter. The young girl was only five years old when they last saw each other, before Tibor was sent to prison. He is released seven years later and tries not to think about the past. Yet he can’t erase his daughter from his life and so they are compelled to start over from the beginning. Both are irresistibly charismatic, headstrong and irascible, but also determined to find a way back to one another.

Synopsis

After he is released from prison, Tibor finds life is just a tedious routine; moreover, he’s still a long way from achieving financial security. At night he’s hired as a bouncer at the local nightclub; during the day he works out and kips on the sofa in his brother’s house. He tries to forget the existence he had before he was locked up, but his past soon catches up with him in the form of 12-year-old Niki. Father and daughter haven’t seen each other for seven long years, and so they are compelled to start over right from the beginning. The irresistibly charismatic twosome are both united and divided by their irascibility and problematic past. In this, her feature debut, Hungarian director Hajni Kis examines one of the many facets of complex family relationships.

Anna Kořínek

About the film

98 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Hajni Kis / Screenplay Fanni Szántó, Hajni Kis / Dir. of Photography Ákos Nyoszoli / Music Oleg Borsos / Editor Vanda Gorácz / Art Director Anna Nyitrai / Producer Júlia Berkes, Balázs Zachar / Production Proton Cinema / Coproduction MPhilms / Cast Gusztáv Dietz, Zorka Horváth, Éva Füsti Molnár, Viktor Kassai / Sales m-appeal world sales UG

About the director

Hajni Kis (1990, Orosháza, Hungary). Filmography: 2nd Floor (2.em, 2014, short doc.) Beautiful Figure (Szép Alak, 2016, short), Last Call (2018, short), Wild Roots (Külön falka, 2021).