At 92, Berta Gardó (Danuta Szaflarska) spends most of her days in an amiable state of senility. Her nights she spends reliving her days as a young woman (Eszter Ónodi) who flees persecution, finds her true love (Tibor Gáspár), endures two wars, and more. Returning to the big screen for the first time in 15 years, filmmaker Ibolya Fekete presents a rollicking portrait of a Hungarian family, one buffeted by the trials, tribulations, and revolutions of the 20th century. Visually, the film is stunning, a kind of magical realism where still images come to life and characters appear to be part of actual archival war footage. Buoyed by mordant wit, a well-earned sense of pathos, and winking homages to everything from silent comedy to WWII epics, Mom and Other Loonies in the Family is an epic look at a Europe under fire as filtered through an intimate, personal history about the ties that bind.
Guest in attendance 10/15 & 10/16: Ibolya Fekete (director, writer)