Shooting on Bernadette Mayer’s debut feature film Mommy Blue (working title: I Never See You), which is due to wrap on 13 December, has now entered the home straight. The young filmmaker (who has also worked as a director of photography on several short films) has secured Anikó Für (notably well-received in The Inventor, Eternal Winter and Coming Out) and Benett Vilmányi (recently at his best in Wandering Leaves, Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period of Time and Guerilla, and hitting screens next year in Silent Night) to lead the cast of her work.

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They’re joined by Szabolcs Hajdu (crowned Best Actor in Karlovy Vary 2016 by way of It’s Not The Time Of My Life, which scooped the Crystal Globe and which he directed himself, and seen in this year’s movies Power and Kalman’s Day), István Znamenák (the winner of the Best Supporting Role trophy in Hungarian Film Week 2018 via The Citizen and very well-received in this year’s Venice Film Festival via Explanation for Everything), Andrea Waskovics (Erasing Frank) and Ildiko Hamori (named Best Actress in Hungarian Film Week 2021, thanks to Pilate).

Written by Bernadette Mayer together with Zoltán Nagy (On the Quiet), the story revolves around Krisztina, an art teacher who is progressively losing her sight as a complication of diabetes. It engenders a crisis, not only in her own life but also in that of her son. Máté must contend with the state of his mother’s health immediately following the birth of his first child. He does his best to help Krisztina, but his life is gradually torn between his increasingly clingy mother and his own little family. Krisztina, meanwhile, fears being alone in the dark…

Mommy Blue is produced by Genovéva Petrovits (selected as one of 2023’s Emerging Producers – read our interview) on behalf of Kino Alfa, and enjoyed support from the Hungarian National Film Institute’s Incubator Programme. The 25-day film-shoot (which kicked off on 29 August) unfolded in Budapest, with Eszter Csepeli heading up cinematography.