60 ÓRA

Every evening mother and son stand on a busy street in the north of Budapest waving to him whilst he, the family father, sits in the bus that will take him to his night shift. As a printed circuit board inspector his work is monotonous. The shift ends at six o'clock in the morning after which he just makes it home in time to bring his son to school, a necessity given his wife has recently taken on a similarly boring job in a bakery.

At the end of 2018 there were mass protests in Hungary against the Orbán government's 'slave law', which stipulated an increase in annual overtime per year from 250 to 400 hours. Forgoing dialogues director Ákos Saufert succeeds in producing a refined social commentary on the human consequences of a working world that no longer recognises the necessity of rest periods. You earn money and yet no longer have a life of your own, as illustrated by the scene in which the father longingly watches on as a young couple smooch in the bus. JT