The idea for “My Mother, the Monster,” which won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Co-Production Market Thursday, came to Hungarian director Olivér Rudolf three years ago after seeing a picture of a woman walking in a dark forest in the middle of the night and wearing a scary monster mask.

“There was a tension between this harsh mask and the vulnerability of the person wearing it, so I wanted to find out who was behind that mask and examine more the mother [underneath it],” he says.

Rudolf’s debut feature comes on the heels of his graduation film “Fonica M-120,” which played in Cannes’ Cinéfondation in 2020. It tells the story of Éva, a mother in her forties who, disappointed with her life and tired of her own insignificance, finds a new identity behind a scary monster mask that eventually liberates her.

Besides looking into the age-old subject of motherhood, Rudolf also wishes to touch on the topic of the queer and drag queen communities in Hungary. While wandering through Budapest, his protagonist will discover a gay bar with a welcoming drag queen community and her principal ally there will be a drag queen going by the name of Svetlana. “It seemed really obvious when we were writing the script that this is the community that accepts everybody,” he explains.

Producer Genovéva Petrovits of Hungarian production outlet Kino Alfa says that after Rudolf’s participation in various incubator programs and script residencies, including Tatino Films’ Full Circle Lab, the project’s participation in the CineLink Co-Production Market has been an invaluable opportunity for Rudolf, French co-producer Florent Coulon from Vrai Vrai Films and herself as they need more co-producers to get the project off the ground after funding from the Hungarian National Film Institute fell through.

This led them to team up with local producers Gábor Kovács and Ágnes Pataki from Filmpartners in a bid to raise additional local private funds.

“We aim to shoot in September 2024. We therefore need to be as quick as possible with the financing process, so the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award is something really helpful at this stage,” Petrovits says.

The producers are Petrovits and Barnábas Toth-Just for Kino Alfa, Kovács and Pataki for Filmpartners, and Coulon for Vrai Vrai Films.

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