FAIRY GARDEN
Hungary I 80 min
Director: Gergő Somogyvári
Producer: Nora Somogyvári
Story editor: Anna Kis
Production company: New Retina Productions Kft
FANNI, the rejected transgender amazon finds shelter at LACI's do-it-yourself hut. The solitary homeless man becomes her father, and they go on fighting Fanni's demons and the rejection of the outside world together.
At the edge of Budapest, in the harsh woods hides a little hut. Inside two fairy-tale-like characters live together, having a kind of father-daughter relationship. The troubled amazon is FANNI (19), who was thrown out on the streets by her family because they couldn't accept her blooming trans identity. She was lost, until she met LACI (60), the solitary homeless man, who seems to be the only person who accepts Fanni as she is. They have many conflicts and problems, but Laci is always there to help, even if he has no experiences either in the transgender journey or in how to raise a child. Fanni wants to and should start her own life, but is unable to step out from the woods, since society is refusing her extraordinary persona. FAIRY GARDEN is a place where life is bizarre and we lose our preconceptions.
GERGŐ SOMOGYVÁRI / IMDB
GERGŐ SOMOGYVÁRI is a Budapest-based cinematographer and documentary director. After studying photography and journalism, he graduated from the University of Film and Drama (SZFE) as a cinematographer in 2008. For 14 years he has worked both in fiction and non-fiction projects as director of photography and directed 5 short and mid-length documentaries screened internationally on TV and at festivals. In 2008, his experimental documentary CARTA AZULEJO – TILE MAIL received the most prestigious national award, the Main Prize of the Hungarian Film Week. FAIRY GARDEN is his first feature-length documentary.
Director’s statement
We made this film over three years, developing a long-term collaboration to dive deep into the story. Keeping the entire film in a single location created a timeless, fairy-tale-like atmosphere. The transgender issue is an important element in the film, but the focus is their relationship. Our approach is to concentrate on how they are drawn to recreate the elementary structures of life which are missing. Behind Laci and Fanni’s unique circumstances and personalities, we witnessed universal human motivations. Forming a family, finding our identity and place in a society are basic drives for everyone. The Fairy Garden presents all these issues in a delicate, grotesque manner and meticulously portrays this challenging process. Although Fanni is an outcast teenager suffering from identity and personality disorder, and she is living together with a poor, homeless man, our story is filled with hope, humor, emotions and magic.
NÓRA SOMOGYVÁRI / IMDB
NÓRA SOMOGYVÁRI, originally from Budapest, Hungary, moved to London in 2006, where she finished her degree in TV and film production at the University of the Arts, London. In 2011, she returned to Hungary, where she set up her company New Retina Productions and worked for different crews of news TV and documentaries, arriving from all around the world to film their story in Hungary. She is an experienced line producer and was also active as a production manager at the Budapest based ELF Pictures for the past three years.
Where are we at?
Production budget: 149.000,00 EUR
Needed for completion: 147.000,00 EUR
Territories available: Worldwide
Expected release: 4.3.2023.
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Production company profile
NEW RETINA PRODUCTIONS is a film production company founded by Nóra Somogyvári in 2012. Somogyvári is a University of the Arts London film and TV production graduate. She has worked on many international TV and documentary projects, and was involved in a number of Hungarian documentary productions with ELF Pictures. FAIRY GARDEN is the company's first feature documentary, in co-production with Sára László, producer of Campfilm and in collaboration with producer Dimitra Kouzi for the audience strategy.