Movie night

Obsession

Obsession is a remarkably inventive film, essentially a character study of the concept of consent. Whatever flaws or imperfections one might find, the film makes one thing abundantly clear, over and over again, in many different ways throughout its runtime:

True, genuine, meaningful consent cannot be extracted or bought by any means.

There is coerced consent, false consent, or the appearance of consent, which in real life may result from psychological pressure, brainwashing, direct or indirect threats, violence, and countless other forms of coercion. In the film, however, these distorted forms of consent are achieved through magic.

The key difference between the film and reality is that, in real life, the gradual surrender of a person's autonomy usually ends up destroying only the victim. In the film, by contrast, there is a certain sense of catharsis when the true culprit is finally confronted with a kind of punishment far worse than guilt, which, in any case, they never truly feel:

The consequences.

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Feels Like Home

Original Hungarian title:

"Itt érzem magam otthon."

The moment I finished this movie I was basically like:

"Give me Hungarian films, Magyar films, whatever they're called. Just take my soul."

No spoilers.

Feels Like Home follows Rita, a worn down woman in her forties who has just lost her job at a shoe store because the business is shutting down. She gets on the bus to head home, probably the number 040... or maybe not.

Just before she reaches her front door, two masked men kidnap her and lock her inside a room.

When she regains consciousness after being chloroformed, she's greeted by a kind, well dressed man named Marci, who warmly tells her:

"Welcome home, Szilvi, little sister. We've been worried sick about you."

Poor Rita insists he's got the wrong person.

"I'm not Szilvi. You've made a mistake."

"No," Marci calmly replies. "You are Szilvi. You just don't remember it yet. Once your memory comes back and you're a good girl, I'll let you out of the room so you can meet the rest of the family."

Rita keeps trying to convince him that she knows exactly who she is.

"Really? There's an entire song about me remembering my own name. You think I'd forget it?"

"That's fine," says Marci. "When you remember who you really are, maybe I'll untie you. Maybe I'll even let you have some water."

After days without food or water, poor Rita eventually realizes that survival means becoming the best Szilvi she can possibly be.

I'll stop here before I spoil anything.

Feels Like Home is a claustrophobic, allegorical psychological drama-thriller with a fantastic, tightly written, highly original screenplay and excellent performances, especially from the two leads, Rita and Marci.

It's a film that leaves you thinking, both during and long after it ends, about ideas like freedom, loneliness, the human need to belong, the microcosm of the family, and other profound questions.