39', DIGIBETA, D/H 2008
Life for a child in this small Hungarian village is one of simple pleasures - bike rides, play fights and hunting for gorillas. But everyone has to grow up sometime, and the nearly idyllic world of the children is shattered sooner than expected when Karcsi, their playmate, dies just before his tenth birthday. Now it’s up to Karcsi’s faithful friends to tell his story - how he loved lions and elephants, how he used to deliberately pronounce words in a funny way and how he wanted to become a doctor and develop a medicine to cure all the illnesses in the world.
Fantasy and reality are blended together in equal measures as the children’s words keep Karcsi’s memory alive. They talk of going with their friend to the International Space Station and taking a spaceship to Mars. And they tell us how one day he lost a tooth and the wound started to bleed and didn’t stop. This is a story of the loss of childhood – an affectionate yet unsentimental goodbye.
Directing Andreas Bolm and Noëlle Pujol
Photography Noëlle Pujol
Sound recording Andreas Bolm
Editing Claire Atherton
Sound Design Cécile Chagnaud
Producer Markus Nechleba
Commissioning editor Katya Mader
Production pickpocket production
In collaboration with ZDF/3sat
Country of production Germany
© 2008 ZDF & pickpocket production
Festivals
Locarno International Film Festival, 2019
Cinéma du réel, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2009
International Documentary Film Festival Munich, Allemagne, 2008
International Independant Film Festival Indielisboa, Portugal, 2008
Shortfilm Corner, Festival de Cannes, France, 2009
Duisburg Documentary Film Festival, Duisburg, Allemagne, 2008 Festival International de Cinéma Expresion en Corto, Mexique, 2009
« Miroirs du cinéma des films et des arts », Bollène, France, 2011
Le P’tit Ciné, Bruxelles, Belgique, 2011
Rolling Film Festival, Pristina, Kosovo, 2011
Exhibitions
La vidéothèque éphémère, Musée du Jeu de Paume, commissaire Marta Ponsa, Paris, France, 2010-2011
La nuit des 1001 vidéos, Galerie Analix Forever, Genève, Suisse, 2008
Awards
DocumFest Timisoara, Roumanie, Prix du meilleur film pour enfants et adolescents, 2008
