The brutal realities facing the LGBTQ and homelessness communities in modern-day Hungary make for stark contrast to the rather fanciful title of Gergő Somogyvári’s engaging and rather warm-hearted film, which follows the unlikely friendship between 19-year-old trans Fanni, who was thrown out on the streets by her family because they couldn’t accept her blooming trans identity, and the solitary 60-year-old homeless man Laci who seems to be the only person to accept Fanni as she is.
Together they live in a ramshackle hut in woods just outside Budapest, with Laci busying himself constantly on his DIY, and Fanni focussing on video streams to her “fans and supporters” as she struggles to find a way to fully transition. Set against the backdrop of people living in the margins of Hungarian society, their life is tough – but at least they live by their own rules.
In 2018 Hungary criminalised homelessness and banned habitual residence and sleeping in public areas, and in 2020 Viktor Orban’s government outlawed the changing of gender on official documents. As a result of a new wave of anti-LGBTQ and anti-homelessness propaganda, many people like Fanni and Laci are forced to live on the fringes of society.
They certainly make for an odd pairing. Tall and slender, Fanni met small and surly Laci two weeks after her parents kicked her out. They have lived together for a year and a half and while their relationship can be brittle and fractured at times, they tend to muddle by.
As Fanni sends a video message to her fans she says: “Is he good to me? He is. That’s it, really. He helps me with my transition, with money. “ She turns to Laci towards the end of the broadcast and adds: “Are you sending a kiss to my fans…yes?”
Sporting a little black dress, Fanni helps Laci saw wood and repair the shack. He often calls her stupid in frustration as she sits on a messy bed surrounded by magazine pictures of naked women, messing with her hair and preparing for her next broadcast. Wearing a tangerine dress she talks on her latest video message about her upbringing. “From now on my parents are no longer my parents. Now I consider my parents as dangerous, harassing, malicious, malevolent people who are about to harm me,” she says. “So they are the worst…not the bullies (who send her abusive messages). They are just small pebbles compared to them. My parents are huge asteroids who struck me.”
During their time together, the relationship subtly changes. Fanni is taken on a photoshoot; Laci spends time chopping wood; Fanni has a relationship of sorts with 50-year-old Aranka; Laci spends more time chopping wood, and Fanni resorts to prostitution to raise money, with plans to try and leave Hungary and go to the Netherlands.
As the film comes to a close Fanni finds tender and tactile love with Dorina, the pair relishing their time together, both favouring summer dresses and giggling with affection. As Laci says: “She is so much calmer since she has been with this boy – they are the same – like two peas in a pod.” The couple eventually leave Laci (“she always calls me twice a week,” he says) but this fairy tale of sorts cannot guarantee delivery of a happy ending, with Laci increasingly ill, but wanting to keep harsh truths from Fanni.
Director-cinematographer Gergő Somogyvári does an impressive job in becoming part of their lives, with footage inside their ramshackle hut especially impressive. It is a delicate story of two fragile outsiders, and while they are complete opposites their need for mutual support is gently heart-warming, with the film offering an enthralling glimpse into a side of Hungarian life rarely seen on screen.
Hungary-Romania-Croatia, 2023, 83mins
Dir: Gergő Somogyvári
Production: New Retina Productions, Avanpost, Campfilm, Restart
International sales: Journeyman Pictures
Producers: Nóra Somogyvári, Gergő Somogyvári
Cinematography: Gergő Somogyvári
Editor: Judit Feszt
Music: Viktor Batki
With: Fanni, Laci
