photo: Inforg-M&M Film
BUDAPEST: The year 2020 started as a good one. The National Film Institute – Hungary (NFI) was established in January 2020 as the successor of the Hungarian National Film Fund, and Barnabás Tóth s historical drama Those Who Remained / Akik maradtak, produced by Inforg-M&M Film, got on the short list in the Academy Awards International Feature Film category. The film didn t make it into the nominations list and with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic the Hungarian film industry faced serious challenges.
Luckily, there was also good news. Kornel Mundruczó s first English language film Pieces of a Woman, produced by BRON Studios (Canada) in coproduction witth Little Lamb (Canada) and Proton Cinema (Hungary), was invited into the main competition of the Venice Film Festival, and it is among the Academy Awards 2021 contenders for a nomination in various categories.
Every time I mention my wife and I have had five homebirths, I get the strangest silence. It takes the opposing human brain a few seconds to hear, catalogue, and respond with: “Oh…that’s cool.”
Now, the modern brain only has so many “boxes.” When the word “homebirth” is uttered, it is hesitantly put in the box with “horse-drawn carriages,” “bonnets,” and “fetch me some water from the well, Amos, and boil it. I’m fixin’ to take me a warsh.” Believe me, that box is a scary place to find yourself.
I am then usually met with questions like: “Are you Amish?” and “What about the pain?” and simply “Why?” and occasionally “Would you like a refill?” when I’m interrupted by a waitress.