Hungarian documentarian and cinematographer Gergo Somogyvari’s feature debut Fairy Garden, which screens at the Sarajevo Film Festival in the Documentary Competition, takes us to a cluttered hut buried in the woods on the outer margins of Budapest.
Cobbled together from scraps of mismatched building materials to keep the elements at bay, the makeshift construction could scarcely be called a house. Yet it is home for sixty-year-old Laci and his nineteen-year-old trans housemate Fanni, who he has welcomed in to share the space after her parents kicked her out and she repeatedly ran away from a state care institute. She cuts a vulnerable figure, as she totters through the mud in a flimsy dress with just a suitcase and a couple of bags. The hardened-looking, bespectacled Laci acts as a support to her as she goes through the gruelling ups and downs of hormone therapy for her transition. Their bond, an oasis free of judgment in a nation that has rejected them for who they are, also alleviates his own loneliness. There is much warmth apparent under their bickering and wisecracks as this oddly matched pair of misfits carry out the daily, practical tasks of survival as a chosen family.
The ejection of Laci and Fanni from society into this quasi-wilderness offers a damning vision, in literal terms, of Hungary’s failed duty of care to its most disadvantaged citizens under Viktor Orban’s hardline right-wing government, which in 2018 criminalised rough sleeping in public places, and in 2021 outlawed the changing of gender on official documents, amid a wave of propaganda against LGBTQ+ people and the homeless. Fairy Garden ultimately comes off somewhat slight in its observational looseness, as it struggles to give a propulsive order to moments of lives of few options orbiting each other in a purposeless drift. Nonetheless it succeeds admirably, through its focus on two distinctive and likeable personalities, in giving visibility and a human face to the people this wave of hate has pushed underground. It celebrates their resilient determination to live on their own authentic terms in the most challenging of conditions, and documents how an alternative mode of community, however fragile and lacking in resources, can operate with intersectional solidarity outside official channels to combat stigmatisation and oppression. With committed humanism and politically engaged courage to call out the emboldening of violent discrimination by the state, the documentary vividly conveys how desperate life has become in Hungary for those targeted by propaganda and exclusionary laws.
Fanni live-streams about her life from the forest, clocking up an audience of both fans and abusive trolls, her elaborate make-up and dresses a glaring contrast with the off-grid campsite environs. Her online instalments punctuate footage of the housemates’ building endeavours and time smoking and talking together. Backstory is sparse and comes in snatches, Fanni’s embittered reference to her parents joining forces with locals to drive her out of her hometown painting a picture of a climate of brutal bigotry in which details are largely too painful to discuss. A fear of physical attacks restricts her movements, but she connects online with a stylist who enlists her to model for a fashion shoot, and a male fan who wants to meet for sex. Fetishisation of difference and limited means to vet and set boundaries with those logging on to her stream with self-interested and questionable motives are phenomenons impacting Fanni’s emergent identity and safety amid the precarity of her grinding poverty. She discusses her reluctance to enter sex work due to the risks, but it’s one of few available financial sources open to her. The documentary avoids a crushing, downbeat conclusion after Laci’s health declines, as romantic love and a more stable alternative family for Fanni enter the horizon.
Director, cinematographer: Gergo Somogyvari
Screenplay: Zsolt Pocsai, Gergo Somogyvari
Producers: Nora Somogyvari, Gergo Somogyvari
Editor: Judit Feszt
Music: Viktor Bakti
Sound Design: Florin Tabacaru, Marius Lefterache
Production companies: New Retina Productions (Hungary), Avanpost (Romania), Restart (Croatia), Campfilm (Hungary)
Sales: Journeyman Pictures (UK)
Venue: Sarajevo (Documentary Competition)
In Hungarian
83 minutes
