Child Murders

Director: Ildiko Szabo
Screenwriters: Ildiko Szabo

Institute History

  • 1994 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Inspired by a true story she heard fifteen years ago. Child Murders is Ildiko Szabo's re-creation of the events surrounding the murder of a young girl by a twelve-year-old boy in Budapest. Masterfully blending realism and the surreal. Szabo explores the secrets of life and death through the eyes of a child, where justice takes on a terrifying innocence.

Zsolt is a good, but lonely, boy who lives with his bedridden, alcoholic grandmother, feeding her dreams of past glory as an actress, Zsolt bathes and dresses his grandmother in wigs and baubles. A glimmer of reality breaks through the charade of his existence when he meets Joli, a pregnant Gypsy girl. In a spectacular scene so natural it seems untouched by the camera. Zsolt helps Joli through a miscarriage with a matter-of-fact attitude so startling it is frightening. Zsolt's relationship with the outcast Joli provokes the jealously of his classmate Ibolya, and his loyalty to Joli leads to revenge and disaster.

Subtle in storytelling yet universal in themes. Child Murders is a highly original and eccentric film Szabo spoon-feeds us morsels of terror that taste strangely sweet.


Saturday Jan 22 Noon
Prospector Square Theatre

Wednesday Jan 26 1:20 pm
Holiday Village Cinema II

$7.00

Distribution in Europe supported by EFDO under the EC’s media program.

— Catherine Schulman

Screening Details

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