Hungary film-maker Agnes Kocsis talks about her film ‘Fresh Air’ which is competing for BIFF’s Feature honours this year.

Is your film a documentary or a feature film?

It is a feature film.

What is the film about?

This is about people who are looking for something, but they don’t know what they are looking for. They are swimming in big water trying to breathe, but they are suffocating.

Why do you think this is an important story to tell?<$>

The job of a bathroom attendant that the mother does is considered to be one of the most humiliating in our society. I thought it was an interesting subject to deal with through the shame her daughter feels, a very evident starting point because audiences can understand it.

I wanted to express these emotions through the atmospheres, images and colours.

Children initially identify with their parents; then they begin to search for their own identity. This was an interesting situation how an adolescent person who is actually is trying to find her way in life and to identify herself can face the fact the her mother is quite humiliated by most of the people. But the most important thing is what I mentioned above — so the loneliness, the impossibility of communication and the search for something better that we don’t know what it is and where it is. I think this is a feeling that can ruin many people’s lives.

Anyway, for me cinema gives an opportunity to tell things differently than though other mediums, and that particular thing, an ensemble of images and sounds, which can create atmospheres and express feelings in a certain way — that unique way that I would like to use completely, and that cinema is close to me. Therefore the story of the film is not so important to me than how it is told. Of course there are some themes that are interesting to me, especially if it is about the inner world of human beings, if their life is full of absurdity.

How did you finance your film? What was your budget and how did you work with it?

The shooting was about 60,000 euros. We shot the film on S16mm, and then we blew up the film digitally. The post-production (sound and blow up) was about the same amount, around 60,000 to 65,000 euros. We had a lot of difficulties, we couldn’t find any money for the film before the shooting, nor from the state fund, nor from televisions, nor from any sponsors, so Ferenc Pusztai, the producer, gave the money for the film, involving also a co-producer, Csaba Einspach.

With this we were able to shoot the film, with a lot of help of the crew, where most of the people were working almost for free, we managed, and also most of the locations were free. We shot in March-April 2005 in Budapest and at the Slovakian border and the whole shooting was 20 days.

How has the film been received so far?

I think it was very well received. We had our world premiere at the 2006 Hungarian Film Week, and we won the prize for the best first feature film.

Then we were selected in the Critic’s week in the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival and since then we received more than 50 invitations at international film festivals around the world and more than 12 prizes. The cinema release of ‘Fresh Air’ was on the 4th of January 2007; and it is still playing at the Hungarian Cinemas.