In 1913, an orphaned young woman arrives in Budapest to take up employment as a milliner at the hat store that belonged to her late parents but becomes mired in a search for a brother she had never known of.
Cinematography
Narrow Academy ratio traps you in Írisz's restricted, terrifying perspective.
Direction
Nemes's follow-up to Son of Saul doubles down on subjective suffering.
Production
Budapest recreated as labyrinthine hellscape of dying empire.
Director
László Nemes
Juli Jakab
Írisz Leiter
Vlad Ivanov
Oszkár Brill
Evelin Dobos
Zelma
Susanne Wuest
The Princess
Judit Pecháček
Szeréna
Levente Molnár
Gaspar
Christian Harting
Otto von König
Julia Jakubowska
Countess Rédey
Urs Rechn
Ismael
Björn Freiberg
Man in White
Sándor Zsótér
Doctor Herz
Mihály Kormos
The Caretaker
Marcin Czarnik
Sándor
Zsolt Nagy
Szilágyi
Áron Öze
Jubilee Man
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nemes shot almost entirely in shallow focus 35mm, with only 10% of each frame ever in sharp clarity—forcing audiences to hunt for meaning.
The film's 1913 setting places its unseen violence on the eve of WWI and collapse of Austria-Hungary—history itself is the invisible monster.
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