Nice and Big

This striking and unjustly forgotten independent film – I should really say very independent – was one of the most controversial films of the 1988 festival. It was shot on 8mm and specially transferred to 16mm for the Rotterdam Festival. There was still a wall in Europe. And from behind this wall came this autobiographical and anarchistic film from a Hungary that was in the process of liberating itself. A film that breathed punk and rock ‘n’ roll. A raw and very personal documentary about life on the self-imposed seamy side of life. Also a film that can help us understand how it was possible that films like The Dealer and Johanna (both in this programme) could be made in that same Hungary, years later. The film maker himself plays the leading role. Together with his girlfriend, he lives under the roof of a tenement building. Bare and without facilities: no running water, no toilet. You have to pee in a bottle, shit on a newspaper. And everything is recorded, even love making. That’s why the film has been described as a film of the body. There’s a lot to be said for that. But it’s also a film about freedom and experiment. About trying out life and its stimulants. From the uncomfortable roof dwelling, the film couple has an elevated view of people reading newspapers and throwing away old newspapers while they’re clean. It doesn’t make them feel any the less for it. Rather more. (GjZ)