The film is set in Budapest in 1957 just after the uprising against the Communist regime, and follows the life of a young Jewish boy, Andor played by Bojtorján Barábas, who is raised by his mother Klára played by Andrea Waskovics with idealised tales of his deceased Jewish father who presumably perished in the concentration camps during the war. Klára survived because she was sheltered by the brutish Gentile butcher, Berend, played wonderfully by French actor Grégory Gadebois, who makes this unappealing character human and nuanced.

After being collected from an orphanage during the first few minutes of the film as a young child and being handed over to a mother who is a stranger to him Andor slowly accepts his mother and dreams of the return of his Jewish father who he has never known but who he believes worked at the Yiddish theatre near their home.

Berend appears suddenly years later in Andor’s life from out of the past aiming to take up life with Klára as his wife and with Andor who may or may not be his son. Klára, who once again needs Berend’s protection in the brutal and unsympathetic world of 1950s Hungary, tries to convince Andor that he must accept this man as part of their small family. The film addresses the compromises that people made to survive.

We also see the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the communists. His best friend is Sári played by Elíz Szabó. Her older brother Tamás played by Soma Sándor is in hiding from the authorities after taking part in the uprising. Herein we have a moral lesson as Andor’s thirst for revenge against Berend, whom he refuses to accept, leads him to a reckless act that inadvertently causes the death of Tamás.

This is a very nuanced story from the director of the Oscar winning Son of Saul and it looks at the compromises people are forced to make in a brutish world and the realisation of these compromises that is part of growing from a child to an adult.

Nemes cowrote the script together with his regular collaborator Clara Royer and has said the film is loosely based on the experiences of his father who lived through the turmoil of WW2 and 1950s Hungary. 

This is a meticulously crafted film from a director that is already a master. He has teamed up again with cinematographer Mátyás Erdély that worked with him on Son of Saul and the work of production designer Márton Ágh should also come in for special praise.

Orphan / Árva  (Hungary, United Kingdom, Germany, France)
Director: László Nemes
Main Cast: Bojtorján Barábas, Andrea Waskovics, Grégory Gadebois, Elíz Szabó, Sándor Soma, Marcin Czarnik

Produced by Pioneer Productions, Good Chaos, Mid March Media, AR Content
Coproduced by Lumen, Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion
Supported by the National Film Institute - Hungary (NFI), Mid March Media, AR Content, Global Screen Fund, French CNC, FFA