A szerdai gyerek
The Wednesday Child
Lili Horváth
»You were born on a Wednesday and a Wednesday’s child can achieve in life anything it wants,« were the last words Maja heard from her mother when she abandoned her at the age of nine. Now Maja is nineteen and already a mother herself. She and her boyfriend Krisz share a dilapidated house on a council estate just outside Budapest. Krisz is a carjacker and Maja used to string along but now she’s a cleaner in the community center. She lost custody of their son along with her last job. Since then, the 4-year-old has lived in the orphanage where Maja and Krisz themselves grew up. Not wanting to repeat her mother’s mistakes, she does her utmost to get the boy back. One day, Maja is given the opportunity to participate in a business start-up project. Thanks to a microloan, she opens a laundry so that she can stand on her own two feet and have a better chance of getting Kristian back. But Krisz and old habits consistently impede progress. Horváth’s naturalistic drama is, in essence, the coming-of-age story of a young mother. Vecsei Kinga plays Maja with an impressive mix of impetuous anger at the world and raw vulnerability. Her film direction skills highly assured, she shows a young woman struggling to carve out an individual path between social determinism and hopelessness. The Wednesday Child celebrated its premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Awards for The Wednesday Child
East of the West Prize – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015
Lili Horváth
Born 1982 in Budapest, Horváth first studied film at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and then TV and film directing at the University of Theatre and Film in Budapest. She began her PhD. in 2009. As part of a scholarship programme, in 2005, she attended the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Horváth has made several films for cinema and television. She also writes screenplays and short stories. She’s currently working on her next project, a love story in a middle class setting.
Films by Lili Horváth
Vakácio (Summer Holiday) 2006 | Uszodai tolvaj (Swimming Pool Thief) 2007 | Napszúrás (Sunstroke) 2009 | Hazafelé (On the Way Home) 2009