LILI is an intimate documentary that follows three generations of women who take the ultimate sacrifice in order to save their family and reconcile their turbulent past.
Lili’s daughter Edie journeys across three continents to find out why her mother Lili abandoned her first baby daughter when she fled her country in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Along the way, she opens a Pandora’s box into a family history that forces her and her family to confront their tragic past.
It is our sincere hope that Lili’s story provides a better understanding of the traumatic impact on families escaping war zones and the experience of generational abandonment as a result of being forced to leave their homes.
We hope that this film offers a voice for anyone who has been through similar experiences, and most importantly, amplify that voice to the decision makers who can create change.
Funding
Screen Queensland, Hungarian Film Commission,
History
ERA Category
- Recorded/Rendered Creative Work - Film/Video
Funding type
- Public funds
Eligible major research output?
- Yes
Research Statement
LILI, a 82/52 min documentary, raised the question of how Holocaust representation could be developed to create lasting emotional impact on audiences. As a result, it investigated how intergenerational trauma existed within one family over three generations. This feature documentary was made in the extensive tradition of Holocaust testimony in screen culture - with such works as Night and Fog (1956) by Alain Resnais and Claude Lanzmann's prolific documentary Shoah (1985). In addition, Schindler’s List (1993) by Steven Spielberg physicalized the Holocaust through its dramatisation and brought it into the real. Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes’ work The Son Of Saul (2015), that won an Academy Award, clearly depicted horrors of the Nazi gas chambers. LILI pushes for a unique way of Holocaust representation through its archival re-enactment illustrating the original trauma in the film. The shocking moment that drives the film’s central narrative and leads to the intergenerational trauma, takes place at a train station in 1944. Our main character, as a then 8 year-old Lili, witnessed the massacre of 199 Jewish forced labourers. Filmed like home video and treated with visual effects, the re-enactments provide a particular emotional perspective on the Holocaust. Another innovation in the documentary was to visually link together the numerous abandonment stories within the family, thus demonstrating the impact of transgenerational trauma. LILI has won the Hungarian Critics Award for best documentary in 2020 and has also been nominated for an Australian Director Guild Award for Best Director. It was in competition for best Australian documentary at the Sydney Film Festival in 2019 and broadcast on Hungarian TV. The film had its International Premiere at the prestigious Krakow Film Festival. The film’s audience is 50,000 and growing. LILI is represented by Ronin Films who are preparing it for educational distribution.Publisher
Soul Vision FilmsPlace of publication
Australia and HungaryConfidential / Culturally sensitive
- No
Language
English and HungarianMedium
Audio Visual EquipmentNumber of discrete components
1Length of recording
85 min and 52 minDate of recording
10/23/2020 12:00:00 AMPerformance size
- Solo
Number of work performers
5Estimated size of audience
10,000Authors of work performed
Peter HegedusWas the work disseminated?
- Yes
Form of dissemination
- Public broadcast
Scope of dissemination
- National
Did the work go on tour?
- No