European identity:
Meeting of foreign cultures, nationalities.
What is common and what is identical in them, in us?
The film demonstrates the meeting of strangers in a micro-situation, where strangers actually due to the anonymity relate to one another with true openness and friendship. This micro-situation is hitchhiking through Europe.
The aim of hitchhiking is not only travelling free of charge, but to take part in an unpredictable, gripping adventure, to get to know people with whom we could never meet as a tourist under normal circumstances.
Waiting for a car at the wayside („Hiking is the Art of Waiting”), waiting for somebody who we don’t know yet. Due to the mutual trust by necessity and the unique situation, the “strangers” get in contact with each other “broad band”.
For both of them the other is an exciting, new “story”. The length and duration of the way is finite, their meeting cannot be repeated again, most probably they never going to see each other again. Therefore this situation, this meeting function is diverse ways. Gripping stories, fates, secrets can emerge. There is no stake of the meeting, they accept the other’s questions, thoughts with total openness, because they know they never going to be each other’s rival.
The film shows the exciting meeting of a Hungarian hitchhiker in 6 short chapters. Our hero’s story takes place in the beginning of the 90’s. During the short and quick meetings such lingual obstacles appear which make the communication at the same time difficult and easy.
Some segments of our identity: such as gender, religion, nationality come to the front during the conversations, situations. We get to know the memories, stories and thoughts of the “players” through amateur family archives.
The film is fiction, but the archives are real, they revive the stories. Approximately the 60% of the film is amateur S8 recordings, from the 70’s and 80’s. The shooting made for the film: illustrations from the hitchhiking, from the autos. The texts in the film except the Hungarian will not be translated into English. In this sense we intend to strengthen the communicational gap in the various situations. The unique intonation of the film will be intensified visually with the rework and collage of the archives.
