Orphan

Budapest, 1957. In the shadow of World War II and the recent failed uprising against the Stalinist government, 12-year-old Andor and his mother, Klára, are trying to get by in a damaged, anarchic country where antisemitism is still rife. Andor has grown up idolising his father – assumed to have been killed in the war – through hearing stories of his gentle nature and his work running the local Yiddish theatre. One day, an entitled, brutish butcher named Berend, who boxes and rides a motorcycle, shows up at their door, claiming to be Andor’s real father. Could his claims possibly be true?

Directed by Oscar-winner László Nemes (Son of Saul), this story of teenage rebellion, fractured families and coming-of-age amid a time of great political turmoil is visually rich, captured gorgeously by Nemes’s regular DOP Mátyás Erdély (The Iron Claw). Nemes drew on his own father’s personal childhood to create this tragic and moving chronicle of intergenerational trauma and self-acceptance.