Ten-year-old Palkó has just moved home to Budapest from Berlin and observes the daily life of an ordinary Hungarian elementary school with confused amazement. Juci, the young teacher just started working there. She is the only one who understands Palkó, as in their own way, they are both suffering from the same, sometimes grotesque educational system.
Acting
Paul Mátis delivers unflinching child chaos without precociousness
Direction
Szimler's static frames turn classrooms into absurdist tableaux
Writing
Dialogue so dry it hurts, then suddenly breaks your heart
Director
Bálint Szimler
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film weaponizes specifically post-socialist Hungarian educational bureaucracy—those endless forms, those meaningless rituals—that will feel painfully familiar across Eastern European viewers.
Szimler reportedly cast real teachers in supporting roles, which explains why the staff room scenes feel like documentary rather than satire. That uncomfortable laugh? It's recognition.
HU
