A divided life: one half in Hungary, the other in Switzerland. One half is set in reality while the other is spent in a dream world, so as to be able to endure the reality.
A splendid youth in the south of Hungary, then came a break down in history, a storm that turned her life upside down. Lucy escaped being deported to Auschwitz and after the war committed herself to the communist movement. She married the true to his party line journalist Miklós Gimes, the father of the film’s author, whose communistic career was making a rocketing climb. After a personal political change, Miklós Gimes was executed in 1958 as a leader of the Hungarian revolt of 1956. Lucy Gimes fled to Switzerland where she and her small son made a new start to life as emigrants. Since the end of the cold war, Lucy Gimes returns regularly to Hungary where her husband Miklós Gimes has a prestigious reputation as political martyr. However Lucy’s life even now does not receive any peace. In Hungary she is confronted with the former lover of her husband’s, who claims to be his widow. At the same time, Lucy is forced to clear up unpleasant questions in her homeland about her role during the dark Stalin period.
At a ripe old age, Lucy Gimes must rewrite her life story. For her son though, who tells her story, it opens up an entirely new world: the magic and the burden of the past.
Documentary, CH 2002, 95′, colour, Video/35mm
Director Miklós Gimes
Original version: German, Hungarian
