Film Archive

Free Fall

Official Selection - Competition 2014 / Szabadesés / Hungary, France, South Korea 2014

An old woman flies past six floors after jumping from the roof of her apartment block. Six stories on the poor state of humanity, told with humour and rare imagination to the accompaniment of a pulsating soundtrack from Amon Tobin. A woeful burlesque set in the present by one of Europe’s most original contemporary filmmakers.

Synopsis

"What tea do you want? We’ve got some mint tea,” an old woman mutters to her apathetic husband, with whom she shares her cluttered home. She then goes up to the roof of her apartment block, from where she surveys the evening skyline over smog-veiled Budapest. And she jumps. We catch a fleeting glimpse of the other flats as the woman plunges past their windows – but we’ll be seeing them again, one after the other, long enough to put a name to the "diagnosis” which shapes their inhabitants, all of whom are – regrettably, it has to be said – typical models of modern society. While given clear distinctions, the stories present numerous parallels. Seen in grotesque hyperbole, we are presented with a mockery of idle messianism and indifference – a spit in the face of hypocrisy. This highly imaginative, fine-tuned and, at the same time, unassuming film comes up with provocative ideas, while nothing about it would superficially cause the least offence. Sometimes not even jumping off a roof will do any good.

About the film

89 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director György Pálfi / Screenplay Zsófia Ruttkay, György Pálfi / Dir. of Photography Gergely Pohárnok / Music Amon Tobin / Editor Réka Lemhényi / Producer Ferenc Pusztai / Production KMH FILM / Coproduction Scipode, Jeonju Digital Project / Cast Piroska Molnár, Zsolt Nagy, Tamás Jordán / Contact KMH Film

About the director

György Pálfi (b. 1974, Budapest) is a leading Hungarian director with many festival awards to his name. After shooting experimental films on Super 8 in the late 1980s, he attracted international attention with his feature debut Hukkle (2002), winning a European Film Award as Discovery of the Year, with further honours at the festivals in Sochi, Cottbus and Budapest. His next film, the visually opulent parable Taxidermia (2006), was premiered in Cannes’ Un certain regard and was also seen by Karlovy Vary audiences. In 2012 he created the highly distinctive cinephilic collage Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (Final Cut: Hölgyeim és uraim), premiered in the Cannes Classics section. Free Fall is his second film to be screened in competition at Karlovy Vary; he first competed here in 2009 with I’m Not Your Friend (Nem vagyok a barátod).