Arts paper by Pigniczky, Réka
Independent filmmaker: 56films.com

Documentary film: Incubator

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This documentary film is about growing up in an exile community in the West, developing a double-identity, and becoming a hyphenated-somebody. It's about learning to have two homelands at the same time - one in real life, and the other imagined and maintained by parents who were forced to flee. It is about a first generation of children whose parents lived abroad longer than they originally expected to, and who never really assimilated. Neither here nor there, the children of this generation find themselves, adults, trying to decide where they belong, what their nationality is, where their allegiance lies.

The story is told through an unlikely, albeit dramatic reunion - one which involves a Hungarian rock opera performed in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California by a cast of 40-something Hungarian-Americans. They meet in the same exact spot they performed Stephen, the king 25 years ago, as
Hungarian scouts during summer camp in 1984. That summer the Soviets still had tanks stationed in Hungary, and the country was isolated behind the Iron Curtain. Many of these scouts had never been to Hungary, where their parents were born.

The reunion of this original cast, now living all over the world including Budapest, makes for an emotional and hilarious portrait of one of many 'incubators' operating in the U.S. over the years. They're meeting, not only to reminisce, but also to figure out just who they've become, twenty years after the 'Motherland' was liberated.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
HD film projector (Blue-ray)