Mundruczó Shorts

Shortlasting Silence is an episode from the sketch film Lost and Found (99’, 35 mm), made with the support of the Federal Cultural Foundation.

The wildly romantic scenery of the Danube Delta is best known from documentaries. Water, reeds, colourful bird world. Right now the water is covered by a fragile layer of ice and the reeds are burning. Three men arrive in a boat. And who is the blond girl? This film was screened at Cannes in 2004. “Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” Luke 5, 4-6

The story is an opera-short-film, a modern take on the story of Saint Joan of Arc. The characters are actors who play victims in staged accidents. In this group of dummies, frail and skinny Johanna is the only one who works with obsession. Her kindness is impossible, and it provokes the others to call her St. Joan. The episode, which is the first scene of an opera triptych, tells the story of bitter and hopeless everyday tragedies, and ends with a surprising twist.

A little boy gets lost in reality. He multiplies himself. His multiplied versions turn up everywhere in his little village. The more of him are appearing, the more frightened he becomes of himself.

An imaginary journey through the mystical landscape of a bad stomach, in Hungary. The traveller is late. The eating machine is working. Thinking is not allowed. The beauty gradually becomes suspicious. The liquorice gets shinier.

As if we were in a small town. An ordinary day in a kid's life. An incredibly hot day. Here everything is unique. One gang. One game. One field. One girl. In the span of one day, how can this boy arrive at such a changing point in his life from which there is no return?