Dusi and Jeno

‘Dusi and Jeno’ is compiled from footage shot by Jeno, a Budapest bank worker, between 1936 and 1966.

At the heart of this diary film is his wife Dusi, for although Jeno ventures out to capture street life, holiday vistas and public events in elegant images and thoughtfully constructed sequences, he always returns to her side; Dusi and her beloved dog in a series of tender domestic tableau. He films them at breakfast, in the garden, in the sitting room - often elegantly framed by windows and doors. We see them glimpsed in silhouette on a train journey, or placed in a beautifully composed landscape. Dusi chats to him as he films; this is the record of a twenty year conversation, much of it we gather about their ever present dog.

Even the second world war is referenced by the domestic, with Jeno returning to film the site of their bomb-destroyed home from exactly the same place he had shot it basking in sunlight years before.

Dusi’s hair turns grey over the years, three dogs take their turn at her side. After her death Jeno remarries; the rhythm of images shifts, the love poem has ended.