(Official trailer in Hungarian but for those of us who don’t speak Hungarian there are subtitles in Czech.)
In order to regain custody of her daughter, whom she left in the care of her fortune-telling aunt, Mona must tell a social worker her story. The tale she spins—and the movie we watch—is a wild, surreal adventure in which people are able to project and enter each other’s dreams, and our heroine is sold into slavery and lands in a swank, debauched Liverpool brothel where the patrons enact their literary/sexual fantasies with Lolita, St. Joan, and Desdemona. Rendered with dazzling tracking shots, striking CGI effects and a pulsing soundtrack, Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu’s risk-taking fantasia has style to spare. But under the seductive surface lurks the very human story of a woman who uses fantasy to cushion the pain of life.
Szabolcs Hajdu’s Berlin Forum title Bibliotheque Pascal is Hungary’s submission for the Academy Award for best foreign language film. Clip (in English) after the cut.