ENGEDETLEN

Bálint is 18 and on his summer holidays. After a long party by the river he makes love to a girl in a car. On the way back to the city he meets Eszter, to whom he immediately takes a liking. She behaves mysteriously and remains non-committal, thus he has to go without her mobile number. How convenient then that Fruzsi is waiting for him at the next party. He is always on the lookout, constantly starting new relationships and ending older ones. Only when he re-encounters Eszter in Budapest does Bálint display genuine passion. She is already in a relationship however ...

Always close to the action, director Zoltán Moll captures the emotional ups and downs of adolescents in a manner that is playful and resplendent in shimmering colours, a sentiment emphasised by the film's indie-pop soundtrack. RELENTLESS, an independent pearl of contemporary Hungarian filmmaking, follows in a long tradition of Hungarian coming-of-age films which range from the classic MOSZKVA TÉR (2001) by Ferenc Török to Gábor Reisz' FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON (FFC 2014). Moll captures the authentic attitude towards life of young Hungarians who, struggle with their inner conflicts as they may, remain strangely apolitical and passive. JT