The story of the film is set in the Hungarian capital in the spring of 1957 when people had barely recovered from the 1956 revolution. Andor, a 12-year-old boy raised by his single mother, grew up with the hope that his father, who disappeared during the revolution, would return. One day a man, claiming to be Andor’s father, moves in with the family, however, the boy refuses to consider the stranger as his father. As the boy feels his mother getting more and more distant from him, he decides to save his family from the man at any cost.
The script written by László Nemes Jeles and Clara Royer was inspired by the story of the director’s own family.
The casting for 10-13 year-old boys and girls for the leading roles took place primarily in Budapest, as well as in the countryside and even in Romania (Transylvania) and the Ukrainian Subcarpathia.
Orphan is produced by Ildikó Kemény and Ferenc Szale through Hungary’s Pioneer Productions, Mike Goodridge through the UK’s Good Chaos, as well as by Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska through Mid March Media and Alexander Rodnyansky through AR Content. The project is coproduced by Juliette Schrameck through France’s Lumen and Thanassis Karathanos and Martin Hampel through Germany’s Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion.
The National Film Institute - Hungary (NFI) supported the preproduction of the film with 186,250 EUR / 66.5 m HUF and the production with 4.208 m EUR / 1.641 billion HUF. The British Film Institute (BFI) is also supporting the project with 1.52 m EUR.
Nemes will collaborate again with Mátyás Erdély, who lensed his previous feature films Son of Saul / Saul fia (produced by Laokoon Filmgroup) and Sunset / Napszallta (produced by LaokoonFilmgroup, coproduced by Playtime Production).
Production Information:
Producers:
Pioneer Productions (Hungary)
Ildikó Kemény: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Good Chaos (UK)
Mid March Media (UK)
AR Content (USA)
Coproducers:
Lumen (France)
Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion (Germany)
Credits:
Director: László Nemes
Scriptwriters: László Nemes, Clara Royer
DoP: Mátyás Erdély
Editor: Péter Politzer
Costume designer: Andrea Flesch
Sound: Tamás Zányi
