2001 Grand Prize of the Hungarían Film Festival in the documentary category for Mostohák /Stepchildren/ 86 min.
2002 Golden Olive Tree prize at the Kalamata International Documentary Festival Mostohák

Stepchildren
A film by ÁDÁM CSILLAG

Gabi: Dear Child Welfare Service. – caption: September 1999 – I would like to inform you that they want to take us away from our foster parent Mrs. Ferenc Dzsiki, against our will. We are three children, I’ve been living with them for eight years. Gábor Nagy, 12, Anita Veres, 17 and Irén Rácz, 17, we love our foster parents very much…
Mother: Gábor, wake up.
Gabi: We live in Mátészalka, at 4/a Vágóhíd street.
Mother: It’s morning, and the daily servant has things to do. Put the bedlinen in the draw, will you?
Gabi: I would like to ask for your help in this case. At this point already only you can help. I’d like to mention it here that I love my mummy and daddy. I live in a well-balanced family. I know this because last summer with my real parents was very bad. I didn’t receive the love I receive from my foster parents. I very much enjoy living with my parents, my sisters, and my friends. I’d like to stay here very much.
(Female voice in the background) Mother…
So I ask you dear Sirs, to help me with this big request… Please, please help us, we’re very happy here, and would like to live here. I would like to tell you all this in person… Yours sincerely, Gábor Nagy, 4th year student, Mátészalka 31st June 1999.
Secretary: This is where you have to go.
Ministry Official: Now this letter you wrote can be considered as if you made an appeal against the decision made by the court of guardians to find you new foster parents, and I’ve seen the minutes of the trial – caption: Csilla Lantai, Ministry of Social and Family Affairs –, that you were there... This case can be started again, and you can start thinking again, and this was why I asked you if you knew what you wanted to do, because you have the right, for instance, to say you want to stay together, or that you want to, well, not change your schools, but stay in you old schools, which are very important factors. What are the things you find important in the case of change?
ANITA: All I can say is that I would only like to stay here, and I want all three of us to stay where we are now. I can’t think of anything else…
János Együd: The problem is we don’t have anything new to tell one another, since I did tell them, down at the family, I did and my colleagues did, told them individually. So there’s a situation whose solution would be resolved only if Valika was ready to quit the status of professional foster parent and would take up being a conventional foster parent, which would provide for the further care of the children. – caption: János Együd, director of Szabolcs County Child and Youth Protection Institute – But if Valika stubbornly insists on maintaining her status, I cannot go any further, and it’s a possibility provided for by the law that we need to find a new place for the three children.