Exhibition for László Nemes Jeles' Orphan

On the occasion of Hungary's Oscar-nominated film, László Nemes Jeles' Orphan, the BTM Kiscelli Museum, the film's distributor Mozinet and the film's producer Pioneer Pictures are organizing an exhibition entitled Orphan - In the Throat of History.

Curator: Szabolcs Barakonyi, photographer

Basic idea: Gábor Böszörményi

Set designer: Márton Ágh

Photo: Mátyás Erdély

Location: Templomtér

Orphan is set in Budapest in the 1950s. Its main character is a 12-year-old boy, Andor Hirsch. He was born in the last year of World War II, his father disappeared in the war, and his mother raises him alone. One day, a strange man appears: he claims to be the boy's real father. The story of Orphan is only partly fictional, Andor is the alter ego of the director's father, András Jeles. László Nemes had heard his father’s family history many times since childhood, so he was aware of his own roots. The screenwriters not only sought to authentically portray a historical era, but also had to preserve the authenticity of personal, family destinies.

“To reconstruct the environment, the film’s creators carried out an emphatically photo-based investigation, which was fundamentally determined by online photo search engines and accessible archives, primarily Fortepan, Hungary’s largest privately owned, freely usable photo collection.” – said photographer Szabolcs Barakonyi. The preparation of the film, the writing of the script and the design of the film’s world can also be considered the result of an investigation. The exhibition also invites visitors to investigate. The creative intentions can be deciphered from the images and texts, the cramped atmosphere of the fifties can be felt, and the family history can be approached. The viewer can enter one of the iconic locations of Árva and get a glimpse into how the images of a film are created.

Source: Kiscelli Museum

Photo: Erdély Mátyás