BOLSHE VITA
dir. Ibolya Fekete, 1995
Hungary. 95 min.
In English and Hungarian with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, MAY 10 – 7:30 PM with filmmaker Q&A (This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, MAY 14 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 31 – 5 PM

Fekete’s first feature is a little-seen gem of ‘90s independent cinema. Set in post-89’ Hungary after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the film follows an eclectic troupe of émigrés, exiles, and sojourners from East and West as they converge in the eponymous Budapest rock club, Bolshe Vita. During this fleeting period of open borders, the transcultural space offers a utopic vision of bohemia and optimism, but also looming dread over the ephemeral nature of it all. Musicians Yura and Vadim revel in their newfound freedom to busk while falling victim to extortion, anti-Russian violence, and the encroachment of capitalism. They find shelter with Maggie and Susan, who enjoy a much more carefree existence as Western vagabonds. Meanwhile, Sergei, a Russian mechanical engineer, struggles to find work and is forced to sell wares in Budapest’s Soviet black markets. Caught between the “short, but memorable period when East Europe was happy” and the increasingly grim reality of post-communism, BOLSHE VITA provides an invaluable contextualization of a vibrant, tumultuous, and overlooked history.

The film establishes Fekete’s key concerns with transience, displacement, historiography, and identity as well as her signature blurring of documentary and fiction. In interspersed montage sequences, the film inserts archival material from her earlier documentaries, Berlin and Back (1990) and Children of the Apocalypse (1992). Images of revolutionary triumph and border crossing intermingle with unsettling acts of violence to offer a less totalizing version of Eastern Europe’s geopolitical past. Utilizing a cast of nonprofessional actors, the film also offers the first glimpse of Eduardo Rósza Flores through his brief appearance as a Chechen mafioso. Flores’ incredulous backstory would inspire Fekete to adapt his life to screen in her follow-up feature, CHICO.