The Wednesday Child

"You were born on a Wednesday, and Wednesday's children can accomplish whatever they want in life." These are the last words nine-year-old Maja hears from her mother before she is abandoned. Now, ten years have passed and Maja is trying as best she can to fulfil this prophecy. She regularly goes to a children's home to see her four-year-old son and hopes that, one day, she will be able to look after him herself. She's familiar with the home – it's where she met Krisz, her boyfriend and the father of her child. He's a young good-for-nothing who doesn't want to be bothered with any of this and would rather have his girlfriend under lock and key. It seems the only way out of this forlorn situation is to join a local community centre programme which aims to help the socially disadvantaged. In her bleak feature debut Lili Horváth seeks to depict people's struggle with their hapless fate and with themselves. It seems that Maja's self-destructive tendencies are the only obstacle preventing her from taking her life into her own hands. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)