IT'S NOT THE TIME OF MY LIFE / ERNELLÁÉK FARKASÉKNÁL

A year ago Ernella, Albert and their 10 year old daughter Laura left the country for a better life. They could not get along in Scotland so they came back. In the middle of the night they turn up at Eszter’s, Ernella’s sister. Eszter, her husband Farkas and their 5 year old son Bruno live in better circumstances than Ernella’s who struggle with serious financial problems. The two families have never been in real harmony with each other. Only Eszter’s can feel that. Ernella’s love to be at Eszter’s. Although they can’t agree on anything. The question is that how the two families able to bear each other at Eszter’s sublet and how long?

“We knew from the beginning that it was not a question of money. The movie wouldn’t be any better if we had more. But if a screenplay is in development and the begging for money begins, slowly your people drop out, the initial enthusiasm vanishes, and the spiritual energy that makes a film like this work disappears.” Hajdu instead chose radical resourcefulness for the two-week shoot. “We didn’t have the money to rent a flat, so we shot in our own. We couldn’t pay for child actors, so we shot with our children. The actors are our old friends. They were happy to come, free of charge, just to spend time intelligently. The cinematographers, thirteen in number, were my pupils at Budapest Metropolitan University. They joined in, keen to get work experience. Other members of the crew were students as well. Their average age must have been around 22. Catering was managed by our friends from the neighbourhood; every day somebody else cooked for the crew.”

Szabolcs Hajdu for The Calvert Journal