égszilánk | skysplinter
2021, Hungary | Narrative Fiction | Digital, Arri Alexa Classic + Cooke Pancros
Produced by The University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest with the support of EU | As a part of Viewfinder - EMJMD
Synopsis
It is a story of eight-year-old Julcsi and the coeval Szilveszter, who become neighbours for a summer. Julcsi is from Budapest. Her parents send her on holiday to Miskolc to her grandmother, where she pals up with Szilveszter. We are in the suburbs, on the borderline of two, very different detached houses. The one on the right is quite neat, while the other on the left is dilapidated and some tiles are missing from the roof here and there.
On the day of her arrival, Julcsi notices the juggling gypsy boy from her window in the neighbouring garden. Szilveszter miskicks the ball just then, and it falls to the side of Julcsi’s grandmother. Szilveszter swears as he tries to climb through a hole in the fence unsuccessfully. Julcsi’s grandmother picks up the ball, but instead of giving it back to the child, she takes it to the house.
The following day, Julcsi leans against the fence between the two gardens. Szilveszter, huddling on the grass, plays with a mirror and acknowledges the presence of the girl by turning sidelong glances towards her. Szilveszter directs the beam of the light to Julcsi’s house. The girl manages to peek through the hole in the fence. She pinches the mirror from the boy’s hand and starts running from him. The boy looks at her surprised then begins to chase her until he gets her. Julcsi turns the mirror against his face. Szilveszter catches her wrist and tries to reach his toy from behind, but the reverberant light strikes him blind, so he must close his eyes. When he opens it, he sees them next to each other in the mirror and breaks into a smile. Julcsi’s grandmother makes an end of their game and angrily commands the girl to go home. Julcsi hurries home with the mirror left in her hand, but she asks the boy to wait for her, promising him to be back straightaway. When the girl reaches the fence, she trips over a cork-wire and crashes through their garden. The mirror breaks into pieces on the concrete, and the sky reflects on them.
The shadows of the evening are falling when Szilveszter is still waiting for Julcsi. The pieces of the mirror are glued together on a piece of cardboard in his hand. He tries to reflect the light to the window of the girl and after a while, it looks as if a shadow would pass over her room. But whoever it might be, one doesn’t look out of the window, only closes the curtain. Szilveszter, in his rage, throws a stone at the window and breaks it. Julcsi’s startled visage and her grandmother’s furious face appear behind it. Szilveszter starts back to their house, but the grandmother follows him to teach him a lesson. But Julcsi is faster than her, she runs out to the street directly to the fence in front of the house of Szilveszter’s family. She does not stop there and runs along in parallel with it until Szilveszter shows up on the other side of the grid. Only their shapes are sharp, having the grandparents at their heels, between them the fence, their hands abut at times through the holes of the wire, the grid totally disappears between them in their unrestrained rush.
Director - Benett Vilmányi and Lili Kemény | Associate Director and Cinematographer - Vivek Jain | Writer - Sára Holczer | Editor - Gábor Balla