Surely everyone who grew up before 1989 on the “eastern side” of the Iron Curtain will relate to this astonishing animation. The film follows three young Hungarians, who decide to travel to the West with fake train tickets. What starts as a fun idea turns quickly into a lucrative black-market job model. Soon the authorities are on their tracks. The film is based on an original idea by Gabor Sipos, who produced the Oscar-winning “Son of Saul”.
The slow decay of a marriage sets the stage for this drama, which is leavened with understated humor. In 1988, Jozsi (Gergely Kocsis) is a Hungarian laborer who decides to marry Elizaveta (Eniko Borcsok), a woman of Hungarian descent living in the Ukraine. 1996 finds Joszi and Elizaveta the parents of a young girl, but otherwise their marriage is a shambles; Jozsi has become an alcoholic and Elizaveta has decided she needs to strike out on her own for the sake of her child. Shot on digital video as a project for Hungarian television, Paszport was directed by Peter Gothar, who previously made the international success Megall Az Ido.
