In 1957 Budapest, just a year after the failed uprising, young Andor grows up believing he is the son of a Jewish man who died in the Holocaust—until a brutal stranger claiming to be his real father appears, upending everything he knows. Set in a city marked by silence, surveillance, and suspicion, Orphan is a gripping coming-of-age tale shaped by postwar trauma and political fear. Andor clings to the myth of his Jewish father with stubborn grace, refusing to accept the violent Communist butcher his mother now presents as truth. Oscar winner László Nemes (Son of Saul, MVFF38) draws from personal family history to craft a quietly intense story of identity, memory, and moral awakening, shot with stark, haunting precision by cinematographer Mátyás Erdély. Orphan invites us into the world of a boy whose hope becomes a form of resistance—and whose heartbreak echoes far beyond history. —João Federici
László Nemes
László Nemes was born in Budapest, and began his career as an assistant director, including on Béla Tarr’s The Man from London (2007). After making several short films, he debuted his first feature, Son of Saul (2015), winning Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes and an Oscar® and a BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film. His second feature, Sunset (2018), won the Venice Film Festival’s FIPRESCI Prize.