EASY LESSONS /Könnyű leckék TRAILER 2018 (feature-length documentary, 78 min., Hungary, Éclipse Film)

2018 Locarno Film Festival - Critics Week Section

2018 Sarajevo Film Festival - Documentary Competition

2018 Camden International Film Festival

2019 Hungarian Film Critics Award for Best Documentary

2019 ZagrebDox – Movies that Matter Award, Special Mention from the Young Jury

2019 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

2019 Hot Docs IDFF

2019 CinéDOC Tbilisi

2019 Dok.fest Munchen

- a documentary feature by Dorottya Zurbó

Synopsis

Kafia is 17 years old. Two years ago, she fled to Europe, Hungary on her own, escaping from a child marriage in Somalia. She has been living in a state children’s home in Budapest ever since. She learns the language, goes to high school, prepares for the Hungarian graduation exam and starts a modelling career. On the surface, everything seems fine. However, behind that beautiful and confident appearance lies a heavy heart. Her repetitive daily routine revolves around constant dilemmas and self-doubt about leaving behind her Muslim culture and everything else she grew up with. As she lets the camera get closer to her the film slowly becomes an intimate confession. What does it mean, on the brink of adulthood, to break with your past and fully give yourself up to a new self in order to live in Europe?

Director’s statement

Easy Lessons is a poetic journey of adolescent Kafia. The taboos, dogmas and cultural values she grew up with in Somalia fall apart as she adapts for a new life in Hungary. Kafia’s Mum helped her escape her fate but how can she explain the changes she lives through? She feels a sense of duty and a desire for resurrection. This inner struggle becomes the film itself and the only form of confession.

Cast & crew

Director: Dorottya Zurbó

Producer: Julianna Ugrin

Director of Photography: Natasha Pavlovskaya

Editor: Péter Sass

Music: Ádám Balázs

Sound: Rudolf Várhegyi H.A.E.S.

Production: Ágnes Böjte

Colorist: Levente Salma

Technical data

Original Title: Könnyű leckék

English Title: Easy Lessons

Genre: documentary

Duration: 78 min.

Year of Production: 2018

Country of Production: Hungary

Screening Format: DCP 2K Flat 1998x1080 1:85:1 25P; 5.1 sound

Colour (Colour, Black and White or both): Colour

Language: Hungarian, Somali

Subtitles: English

Main contacts

Production company: Éclipse Film Ltd.

Julianna Ugrin, producer: [email protected]

Ágnes Böjte, production manager: [email protected]

World Sales: Syndicado

Aleksandar Govedarica

contact: [email protected]; [email protected]