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Love and reality go under the scalpel in this story of obsession on the streets of Budapest.
Spontaneously quitting her lucrative job in the United States, a Hungarian neurosurgeon travels back to her homeland to rendezvous with a doctor she fell in love with at a convention. When he fails to show up for their appointed meeting – and, upon being tracked down, claims to have never met her – she begins to doubt her own sanity, opting to trace his movements in order to work out whether she has been spurned and gaslighted or, instead, simply dreamed up an idealised encounter.
Writer/director Lili Horvát’s second feature – which premiered to acclaim at the 2020 Venice Film Festival – is a quietly compelling thriller that probes questions of memory, motivation and perception. Bypassing genre clichés, this mysterious narrative puzzle also offers a refreshing take on the psychological drama through its subversion of gender tropes and the characterisation of its rigorously self-aware protagonist (played with icy elegance by Natasa Stork).
“This crystalline tale of memory, love and brain surgery … is a treat – sinewy, seductive and beautifully strange.” – The Guardian