2018 Locarno Film Festival - Critics Week Section
2018 Sarajevo Film Festival - Documentary Competition
2018 Camden International Film Festival
2019 Hungarian Film Critics Award for Best Documentary
2019 ZagrebDox – Movies that Matter Award, Special Mention from the Young Jury
2019 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
2019 Hot Docs IDFF
2019 CinéDOC Tbilisi
2019 Dok.fest Munchen
- a documentary feature by Dorottya Zurbó
Synopsis
Kafia is 17 years old. Two years ago, she fled to Europe, Hungary on her own, escaping from a child marriage in Somalia. She has been living in a state children’s home in Budapest ever since. She learns the language, goes to high school, prepares for the Hungarian graduation exam and starts a modelling career. On the surface, everything seems fine. However, behind that beautiful and confident appearance lies a heavy heart. Her repetitive daily routine revolves around constant dilemmas and self-doubt about leaving behind her Muslim culture and everything else she grew up with. As she lets the camera get closer to her the film slowly becomes an intimate confession. What does it mean, on the brink of adulthood, to break with your past and fully give yourself up to a new self in order to live in Europe?
Director’s statement
Easy Lessons is a poetic journey of adolescent Kafia. The taboos, dogmas and cultural values she grew up with in Somalia fall apart as she adapts for a new life in Hungary. Kafia’s Mum helped her escape her fate but how can she explain the changes she lives through? She feels a sense of duty and a desire for resurrection. This inner struggle becomes the film itself and the only form of confession.
Cast & crew
Director: Dorottya Zurbó
Producer: Julianna Ugrin
Director of Photography: Natasha Pavlovskaya
Editor: Péter Sass
Music: Ádám Balázs
Sound: Rudolf Várhegyi H.A.E.S.
Production: Ágnes Böjte
Colorist: Levente Salma
Technical data
Original Title: Könnyű leckék
English Title: Easy Lessons
Genre: documentary
Duration: 78 min.
Year of Production: 2018
Country of Production: Hungary
Screening Format: DCP 2K Flat 1998x1080 1:85:1 25P; 5.1 sound
Colour (Colour, Black and White or both): Colour
Language: Hungarian, Somali
Subtitles: English
Main contacts
Production company: Éclipse Film Ltd.
Julianna Ugrin, producer: julianna.ugrin@eclipsefilm.hu
Ágnes Böjte, production manager: agnes.bojte@eclipsefilm.hu
World Sales: Syndicado
Aleksandar Govedarica
contact: aleksandar@syndicado.com; admin@syndicado.com
