Unwellness, or the Principle of Precaution
Date:
December 28, 2024
Unwellness, or the Principle of Precaution
Unwellness, or the Principle of Precaution
by Reka Pinczes
ULab | Hungary
Short sensual drama
Logline
Rigid Ildikó is going through the thick of menopause at her accountancy training in a spa hotel, when a full-of-life hearing-impaired woman unexpectedly awakens her long-dormant sensuality, disrupting her previously assumed sexual identity.
Synopsis
ILDIKÓ (52) is a prominent accountant whose comfort zone are numbers where everything is precisely calculated, unlike intimate connections, which she distances herself from. Going through menopause and having a broken relationship with her own body, her sexual life has become practically non-existent and she has given up trying to change it. Until an accountancy training, which takes place at a spa hotel in the countryside, brings her back to sensuality.
The person who ignites the long-dormant desire in Ildikó happens to be ODETT (38), a hearing-impaired woman working at the hotel. At their first encounter, gentle and attentive Odett, with her tender radiance, touches Ildikó in a way which is able to smooth away her stiffness. In many aspects, reserved Ildikó and friendly Odett are polar opposites, but the physical chemistry is so strong between them that they feel an urge to be close to each other.
Not only does Ildikó have to learn communication methods that the hearing impaired can understand in order to talk to Odett, but more importantly, she has to resolve her broken relationship with her own body in order to experience intimacy.
Author’s Note
I, for my part, like to think that I am in harmony with my sexual identity, but again and again, I have to realize that it is a very fragile thing and will probably remain so for the rest of my life. I have a hard time escaping a feeling of lingering loneliness, even if I’m in a relationship, and it limits my ability to express my intimate needs.
That’s how Ildikó (52), my heroine, has been created. She represents the intimacy barriers in question, because she’s someone who isolates herself, someone who doesn’t want to be seen and can’t articulate her desires, what’s more: she is not even aware of her desires because she suppresses them so much.
Middle aged women are easy targets of desexualisation as they are either on the verge of menopause or already going through it, which can be a tough battle. For some, it leads to lack of libido and depression, but for some, it can be a new turning point of self-exploration, or even a sexual rebirth. The latter is happening to Ildikó in this film with her newly found attraction to a woman.
However, it’s not the gender which is the important aspect about the subject of her desire but it rather comes down to whether she is able to allow herself the intimacy she has been subconsciously craving for.
I feel like, if I don’t pay attention to myself, there is a chance that I could end up like Ildikó: with repressed sexual desires, isolated from physical pleasures. That is why I am eager to tell her story, which I believe could be engaging for anyone with similar issues.
Company Profile
ULab is a film production company that is a creative branch of Umbrella Collective in Hungary. Since 2018 we search, develop, produce and co-produce both short and feature length animations, fictions and documentaries. We are focusing on cutting edge storytelling and innovative hybrid forms of narratives with authentic personal voices.
Umbrella is a leading creative agency and production/post-production house in Hungary. The company has produced hundreds of television commercials, branded content and music videos, and animated short films. Umbrella’s projects have been invited to prestigious film festivals and have won several creative awards, including a Golden Cannes Lion in 2024.
Besides several shorts, such as My Name is Boffer Bings (2012), Balcony (2016), or Affricate (2022) the company group produced three feature films so far, which travelled over the world’s film festivals from Palm Springs to Hong Kong. The low-budget feature The First Two (2023) won Myrtle Beach Independent Film Festival (US), ÉCU Independent Film Festival (France) and Lublin Film Festival (Poland), while All About the Levkoviches (2024) was distributed all over the American Continent by the Menemsha Films (1945, Kiss me Kosher) and Encripta and won a FIPRESCI Award at Sofia International Film Festival. The animated documentary feature Pelikan Blue was in the shortlist for the European Film Awards nomination in 2024 after premiering at the A list film festival PÖFF Black Nights Tallinn (2023) and competing at more than 40 film festivals across the globe.