Nemes's debut feature film Son of Saul won the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016, as well as fetching Golden Globe and BAFTA awards.

Orphan was made with support from the National Film Institute in Hungarian-British-French-German co-production and it was inspired by the history of director's family.

The film is set in 1957, after the uprising against the Communist regime in Budapest, and focuses on a 12-year old boy who is being raised by her mother, and hopes that his father who disappeared in WW2 might still return.

Orphan was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and will be shown in Hungarian cinemas from October 23.

László Nemes Jeles was on a mission to tell the story of his new film, The Orphan, inspired by the fate of his own family. The director spoke about this at the film's pre-premiere screening held on Sunday at the Belvárosi Cinema in Szeged.

Nemes Jeles László said that the film, set in Budapest in the spring of 1957, during the period of rebuilding the communist state following the suppression of the 1956 revolution, was born from the idea of ​​his father, András Jeles. He wrote the original material, and tried to find financing to develop the script and make the film, but he was unsuccessful.

According to the director, his father was too close to the story, and perhaps it would have been too painful for him to make the film. During the work, he also had to strive to find the right distance. While writing the script - which he co-wrote with Clara Royer - he tried to keep the pillars of the basic story as much as possible.

The main character, 12-year-old Andor, is raised by his mother alone, and the boy still hopes that his father, who disappeared in the war, will return. One day, a man appears at their house, claiming to be Andor's father. The boy refuses to consider the stranger his father. 

However, the man moves in with them, and the boy is forced to come to terms with his illusions. As the rift between mother and son deepens, Andor decides to save his family from the man at any cost.

The director said that the film will explain why he is listed as László Nemes in the main title.

Although the artist's previous films, Son of Saul and The Sun Rises, are set during World War II and World War I, he did not consciously think of a trilogy when making them, fate brought it that way. 

According to him, the three works contain the fate of the country, the region, and through it, the continent.

The director recalled that he was a child during the last years of the Kádár era, and that the era oppressed him even then, and he tried to portray this in the film. The Orphan tries to draw attention to the importance of integrating the 20th century, but without confronting it, there is no way to do this, he said.

"The Orphan" was shot on 35mm film, in order to ensure that the work reaches the audience in the best possible quality, he said. 

He said that filmmaking requires hard work, that it is a craft process, and that knowledge and professionals are needed to provide the viewer with the richest possible experience.

In order to make the characters of the child actors have a real impact, they were looking for candidates who had an innate dramatic nature. They found this in the person of Bojtorján Barabás, who played Andor, and Eliz Szabó from Szeged, who played Sára. 

However, the child actors did not receive the last ten pages of the script, and it was only at the end of the filming that they found out how the story would end - said László Nemes Jeles.

The film, made in European co-production with the support of the National Film Institute, was also in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and in the program of the Toronto International Film Festival. 

It will be shown in cinemas in Hungary from October 23, distributed by Mozinet.


Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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