Guarded Secrets

Running time: 89 mins

Irma Varró is orphaned, pregnant and fed up. She has just turned 18-years-old and is leaving the state orphanage, her only link to her past, the necklace her mother placed around her neck when she abandoned her.

Irma is soon caught up in a voyage of self-discovery. Narrowly escaping abduction by a "baby ring," she contracts to sell her baby abroad with the help of a dealer. As she waits for the birth, Irma is hired as a cleaning woman and meets Józsi, the sound man who inadvertently leads her back to her roots and to the Fireworks/Catering proprietors, who hold an important secret about her past. Irma quickly learns that confronting the truth is easier than unraveling it.

Featuring superb scenery of "the real" Budapest and compelling performances by all the cast, especially Anna Györgyi (who won the Best Actress Award at the Budapest National Film Festival), Zsuzsa Böszörményi?s Guarded Secrets is a story of longing, where everything is shrouded in mystery and secrets.

Tim Shively

Screening with:
Rain is Falling; dir. Holger Ernst; 15min/35mm/Germany, Morocco - Somewhere forgotten, a girl works hard to bring water back home, taking care of the house and her sick mother.

EMERGING MAVERICKS / NEW VISIONS