“I started writing about the day just before Abel’s final exam. I wrote in the first person singular from the perspective of an 18-year-old boy and then I did the same from his father’s point of view,” explained Hungarian director Gábor Reisz the multiperspective aspect of his film Explanation for Everything and likened it to the Japanese classic Rashomon. The low-budget winner of the Best Film Award in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival also reflects the growing social tensions across contemporary Hungary in a light and sensitive way.
The cockade pin in the Hungarian national colours carries significant symbolism. “Historically, it represented unity, pride, independence. After the 2022 elections, when Orbán politicised it, it became a source of division. It now serves as a litmus test for being considered a ‘proper’ Hungarian,” the director explained during the debate. He did not seek funding for the film from the Hungarian Film Fund due to his aversion to political cinema. The film was thus made with minimal resources and received support also from Slovakia. “There were seventeen of us in the crew. We didn’t use film lights or any camera movement equipment,” said Reisz, emphasising the importance of rehearsals and actor improvisation.
The characters also reflect the director’s personal life. “While writing, I realised that the main character was me at eighteen. His father, in turn, mirrored a lot of my own father, who passed away in the first year of the film’s development. I maintained a connection with him at least through the language of cinema,” concluded the man who is also a main jury member at KVIFF.
