A Hungarian fairy tale = Hol volt, Hol nem volt [NTSC]

This strange, beautifully realised, almost wordless film combines gritty social realism and symbolic poeticism to tell the story of a boy’s fruitless search for his father. The film begins with a highly romantic scene in which a beautiful young woman and a handsome stranger meet at a performance of ‘The Magic Flute,’—an encounter that results in a passionate one-night-stand and the birth of a child. Though the father is never heard of again, Hungarian law states that every child must, by the age of three, have a father’s name entered on their birth certificate. The woman, with the encouragement of the bureaucrat who completes the form for her, invents a fictional name, address and occupation for the father. Years later, after his mother’s untimely death, the boy, now in his teens, sets out to find his mythic father. Beginning as a satire about Hungarian bureaucracy, the film introduces surreal and comic elements as the boy’s journey progresses. Eventually it evolves into a provocative allegorical fantasy about Hungarian identity and politics. Features a particularly strong performance by David Vermes as the teenage boy and impressive black and white photography. Cast also includes Maria Varga, Frantisek Husak and Eszter Csakanyi.