Number of Pages: 77 pages
Country of Origin: Hungary
Synopsis: The film is based on a true story: in 2021, a van carrying migrants was chased by police near the southern border, crashed into a pole and then a tree. Neither the driver, who was working with the smugglers, nor the African refugees crammed into the cargo hold survived the collision. But it emerged at the scene that someone in the front passenger seat may have been thrown out of the bouncing windscreen, survived and fled on foot. We also know it was a pregnant African woman who survived.
Mátyus lives alone on a renovated farm a few kilometres from his cottage. His wife was a victim of the covid and the literature teacher moved out with his faithful komondor. Mátyus has more admirers in the neighbourhood than a good teacher, but his only friend is Patkó, the farm postman, a man in his fifties, who, after raising two children who were not his, left him a few years ago because he is unlivable and a bit of a nutter, apparently. One night, the komondor signals and leads his owner to a young black girl in labour, wallowing in the corn, around whom stray dogs are already gathering. They take her to the farm, and the man and the dog/!/ deliver the baby, which fortunately is free of complications. The young girl - Cyndie - doesn't know where she is, terrified, clutching her newborn baby.
Matthew doesn't know what to do. All his life, he has wanted children and grandchildren, but his marriage has been fruitless. So he hesitates, wanting to keep it that way for at least a few days. He confides the secret to Patko, the postman, who is shocked but helps. He fetches the clothes his ex-wife left at home and goes to the Tesco in the distance to do the shopping that Matyus thought he should do at this time of year.
The manager of the huge car and truck wash at the southern border is upset because it is a front, actually employing people smugglers. He knows that a woman who was on the list has disappeared. He sends his men out to watch the farm, fearing she can identify his men.
The police are not idle. Magács, a former student of Mátyus, leads the investigation, the technician finds traces on the car's front windscreen and it turns out that someone has fled the scene.
Unaware of all this at the Mátyus farmhouse, Mátyus and Patkó are making a romantic plan to rescue the girl, but they just don't know how to go about it. At one point, Cyndie grabs Patkó's cell phone and calls an unknown number, talking to an unknown person, which turns out to be someone from Germany coming to pick her up. She cannot communicate with her rescuers anyway, she speaks no English, no other language but a form of Sudanese. Because all they find out about him is that he is from Sudan. The child is healthy, she is breastfeeding, the mother has milk, such problems do not complicate the situation. As the Matyus live in a favourite territory of illegal border crossers, they know the rules. The child will be taken from the woman, she will be taken to a care centre and the woman to a camp, and they will presumably be deported back.
This part of the film, which takes place at the Mátyus tanka, is mainly about the growing, almost father-daughter relationship between Mátyus and Cyndie, and the efforts of Patkó to create the conditions (buying, etc.) even though they know that such a story cannot remain a secret for long. Mátyus makes up a cot, tries to make the woman's situation livable.
One day at dawn, the young black man she has called arrives, and the two friends are almost happy to take him, perhaps to a safe place, to their own. At first the man is mad about the woman, but when he sees the child, he makes a big scene, hits Cyndie, and it becomes clear to Mathew and Horseshoe that the child is probably not his. Then the man drives off in his car. This is already noticed by the smugglers watching the farms.
Meanwhile, the leader of the traffickers offers a deal to a man from Budapest who has been trying to buy the Mátyus farm for years because he wants to build a nuclear waste dump on the site, which is a huge deal. But Mátyus has never been willing to negotiate. This farm belonged to his father, he will never sell it. The two men conspire to resolve the situation by force.
Meanwhile, Patko's phone rings with a foreign woman, talking to Cyndi, who is happy because a relative from Austria has offered to help. But to get to Graz, he needs minimal paperwork. Even Patkó and Mátyus make a plan for Syndi to take the train to Szentgotthárd, where her black female relative is waiting for her.
Meanwhile, the young captain Magács discovers what might be happening at the Mátyus farm. As it turns out later, it's no great mystery. The villagers have fun finding out what kind of diapers and other things Horseshoe is buying. Magács knows what awaits the young woman if she is caught. She only breaks the rules because of her former and beloved teacher. The woman's bag was stuck in the cab at the time of the accident, with basic documents in it, but of course no visa or passport.
She goes to see her former teacher and discusses the situation with Mátyus outside the house. His former teacher's painful confession of loneliness and widowhood makes him understand the situation. And he hands over Cyndie's papers.
The small group - Matyus, Cyndie, Horseshoe and the baby - plan to reach the railway station at dawn, with Horseshoe stealing the post office's parcel van. The traffickers also plan to enter the farm at dawn, but they have already disappeared.
Meanwhile, Magács is disturbed by his boss in his apartment at night, questioned for the disappearance of the physical evidence, and is immediately sent to the farm to capture the woman.
The Mátyus arrive at the station.
Meanwhile, the smugglers enter the house but find no one there. On the boss's orders, they set the farmhouse on fire, so maybe the owner no longer needs it and the contractor can own the land, half a success, but something. But after the farmhouse is set on fire, the police arrive, a chase ensues, a firefight breaks out. Magács cannot get into the burning building, convinced that his beloved teacher has burned inside.
In the meantime, the "little one" arrives at the station at dawn, with hardly any passengers. Mátyus bids farewell to Cyndi and his child, then unexpectedly asks her to stay here, to stay together as long as possible, he will help her with everything.
Cyndie does not speak the language, but she understands his intentions and his concern. She is not at all sure that she will be able to get to the meeting place, that her child will stay with her, that the lengthy refugee process will lead to a result. So she lets the train go. On the way to the farmhouse, they notice the building is on fire, there is no point in going back there. They are joined by the young village priest, who has been a major player in the story so far. Matyus takes the baby carrier, puts the baby in it and they set off across the wilderness to somewhere, anywhere but here. This procession ends in a surreal scene: families, men, women and children, who look like hikers, join them on the way, several nationalities, Chinese families and others. With Matthew, Cyndi and the baby, they are heading towards a truer world. Where this is - the film does not tell us. Nor does Life.
The film, although based on a realistic story, is not without humour, absurd situations and poetry. The story may be simple, but the dialogues themselves, the human relationships, keep the film in the realm of the sublime.
