Orphan (Árva)

Post World War II and the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Hungary is in a state of almost complete turmoil. Poverty is endemic, jobs scarce with those who can looking to escape the country to the west. That however is dangerous as the country is now under the Soviet yoke and the secret services are everywhere.

All this act as a backdrop for László Nemes’s Orphan. The orphan in question is Ándor (Bojtorján Barabas) who is raised by his mother Klára (Andrea Waskovics), so not an orphan. She has virtually given up on his father ever returning but Ándor still hopes and has imaginary conversations almost prayers with him.

For the most part he’s an angry resentful boy who has a knack of damaging almost everyone around him. He steals from his mother’s employer getting her sacked and is dreadful towards his only real friend Sári (Elíz Szabó) all contributing to his own self-destructive tendencies. It makes for an understandable yet deeply unsympathetic character.

And his character is tested to the full when Berend Mihály (Grégory Gadebois) arrives to see his mother and claims to be his father. There’s a complicated background to this that involves the carnage of the war and the rampant antisemitism of the time. There are stories and truths that people are just not ready to deal with, if ever.

At two hours and fifteen minutes, Orphan is a challenging film and not totally rewarding. Visually its ravishing with the sets and sepia colours emulating the rare colour films of the time. The camera has a smooth flowing motion with some astonishing compositions.

The story itself is solid and for the duration does maintain interest, though its heavy going. The main problem is that Barabas is full-on one-dimensional intensity for nearly the whole film which becomes irritating. That is a counterpoint to the lumbering Gadebois whose boorish character, possibly with a very murky past, manages through nuance to be more interesting.

Orphan will be in UK cinemas from 15 May 2026.