Klára Is Here
Date:
December 15, 2022
Klára is Here
Klára is Here
by Dávid Csicskár
Filmfabriq | Hungary
Live-action feature | 1st feature
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Logline
Elderly Péter devotes himself to caring for his wife, Klára, who has dementia, but the strain is taking a toll on his own health. When he falls in love with Klára’s vibrant old female friend, he is torn between his duty and the promise of a new life.
Synopsis
Klára and Péter, retirees married for fifty years, live in an old house in southern Hungary. Klára suffers from dementia, and Péter cares for her with love and devotion, but the strain takes a toll on his health. One morning, Péter collapses in the kitchen, leaving Klára unsupervised.
Under pressure from his daughters, Péter agrees to place Klára in a daycare center where she can spend her days and return home to sleep. For the first time in years, Péter has free time, but he feels lost without the daily responsibilities of caring for Klára. At the daycare, he encounters Andrea, Klára’s old friend and hairdresser, who wants to amend for disappearing after Klára’s illness.
As Andrea starts visiting them regularly, she and Péter get involved in a sexually heated love affair, revealing a hidden side of Péter. The fragile balance shatters when Klára escapes from the daycare and finds Péter and Andrea together. Though Klára doesn’t seem to remember what she saw, her condition worsens, and Péter struggles to balance between his two lives.
Péter relies on Andrea to care for Klára 24/7, as it’s the only way they can be together. But the pressure drives Andrea to step back and end their affair. To be with Andrea, Péter should place Klára in a permanent care home, signing her death sentence. Torn between devotion to his wife and longing for Andrea, Péter faces an impossible dilemma: he should sacrifice his own happiness out of respect for the woman he has loved for fifty years.
Director’s Profile
David Csicskár was born in Pécs, Hungary in 1987. He graduated at Pécs University in 2010, then made his second graduation in film studies at Eötvös Lóránd University Budapest. He started his television career with soap opera writing for the national private channel, TV2 (Family secrets, Private investigators). Later he was writing series for RTL and HBO Hungary. Among others he wrote and directed the successful black comedy series “Tóth János” for the Hungarian Public Service Television. Recently he directed several comedy series for Viasat3 and TV2. He made numerous short films, among which “Uchebnik” was selected by various festivals (including Montreal Intl Film Festival) and was nominated for the best Hungarian short film award in 2017. He is a graduate of the European Showrunner Programme at the International Filmschule Köln.
Company Profile
Filmfabriq Kft. was founded in 2012 by Gábor Osváth and Dorottya Ócsai. The company has since produced seven feature-length fiction films, several documentaries, dozens of award-winning shorts, an animation series and numerous commercials. Some of the recent projects include ‘Captives’ (2019), directed by Academy Award-winner Kristóf Deák, which won nine awards at the Hungarian Film Week, including Best TV Film and Best Director. Filmfabriq’s comedy feature, ‘Christmas Flame’ by Dániel Tiszeker became the highest grossing Hungarian film of 2021. Filmfabriq made the documentary Colors of Tobi in 2021 about a transgender character, with the support of Sundance Institute and premiered in BFI Flare London. The company’s international co-productions include Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light (a Czech-Slovak-Hungarian animated feature), that received the Jury Award in Annecy International Animation Festival in 2023.