Bibliothèque Pascal

"No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful
time." One could be tempted to think that Mona Paparu, who
has to tell her story to the child protective services to get back
custody of her young daughter, has been given advice by the impatient
Gryphon from "Alice in Wonderland". Her depiction of
the happenings of the past three years wrenches the viewer into
an adventure where love, crime, clairvoyance, resurrection of
the dead, women-trafficking and a literary S/M brothel have no
small part to play.

Hajdu wraps this story of a single East European
mother, who ends up working as a prostitute in Liverpool, in
bright colors. With wonderfully kitsch special effects, slow and
dreamy tracking shots and a hypnotizing soundtrack, he brings
cinema back to where it was once at home – back to the fun
fair where a story is allowed to be imaginative and captivating,
not bound by the constraints of authenticity, as is Mona Paparu.
Leaving mother and daughter to live happily ever after in our
uniformly furnished world, which at times makes us all want to
dream away. Sometimes even at the movies.

Anna Hoffmann

Source: 60. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)