The Barbican Centre and The New Social are delighted to present the next screening as part of New East Cinema, a programme of contemporary film from the New East in collaboration with Calvert 22 Foundation.

Join us for a screening of this mystifying urban fairy tale from Hungary, followed by a ScreenTalk with director Bence Fliegauf.

Lily Lane

Hungary / Germany / France, 2016, dir. Bence Fliegauf, 91 min.

Centred on a relationship between a mother and her young son, acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Bence Fliegauf’s latest feature is at once a tale about growing up, motherhood and separation and an associative expedition into self-constructed, fictitious and bygone worlds.

Going through a difficult divorce with her husband, Rebeka (Angéla Stefanovics) forges a relationship with her son Danny (Bálint Sótonyi) that is inextricably linked to stories and fantasy. The film opens with the sound of Rebeka’s voice reciting a fairy tale, seemingly constructing it as she delves further into the fantasy world of her own creation, one which exists only for herself and Danny. As the narrative unfolds, the fairytale becomes the prism through which we get glimpses into Rebeka’s relationship with her ex-husband, her parents and her family history, and begin to delve into the wider themes of divorce, death and reunion.

Memories and images from the past – Rebeka rubbing lotion on to her pregnant belly, stroking the unborn child or the image of a birch tree at night – fuse together with the present creating a visual kaleidoscope and dreamlike tone.

About New East Cinema

New East Cinema is a bi-monthly film series curated by The New Social, presented by Calvert 22 in collaboration with the Barbican Centre, which looks across eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia to uncover the most thought-provoking, daring and vibrant cinema coming from today’s “New East”.