This realistic, absurd short film is about enlightened lesbian Jacobines in the Hungarian countryside whose peaceful lives are upset by the emperor, Franz I. (who takes after Trump), and his entourage following the French Revolution.

WHO WE ARE

The Budapest Lesbian Film Committee (BLFC) was founded in 2000 in Budapest, Hungary. BLFC is part of the lesbian feminist organisation, Labrisz Lesbian Association. We are activists and filmmakers, writing, acting and shooting films. We believe in participatory filmmaking, and in transforming our anger and other strong feelings about politics in a creative way, through which we can raise awareness and inspire more creative actions.

Our latest film ‘The Second Golden Age - Challenges of Love’ (2023) was screened at several feminist and LGBTQ film festivals from Los Angeles to Warsaw. Our new film will be directed by our award-winning film director, Mária Takács.

SYNOPSIS

It is a rarely known fact that the Hungarian Jacobins were organizing not only in the capital, but in the larger cities of the provinces as well. The Jacobins were noblemen who welcomed the Enlightenment and fancied themselves as free thinking citizens. They formed reading groups to discuss new ideas and rejected the feudalist rule of the emperor.

In the late 1790s, influenced by the noblemen of Zala county, lesbians in a village of Somogy county form a Jacobine reading group. They write their reflections down in a booklet. Life is slow, a bucolic idyll. They grow grapes, design buildings, and bathe in the natural springs in the warmth of the first summer days. They gather in a barn weekly, to draw up their questions and answers about the emperor`s feudalist measures affecting their community and the entire country.

Early one May morning, an unforeseen incident takes place. The emperor and his wife arrive in a Tesla car at the top of the hills surrounding the village. The car’s driver, who looks like Elon Musk, gets out and opens the doors for the royal couple. The emperor wears a red baseball hat and the empress a hat resembling one worn by Melania Trump. The emperor and empress go to occupy the Oval Office, a rinky-dink pen at the back of the garden. The servant resembling Musk takes a white porcelain toilet bowl out of the car and carries it to the pens. The emperor sits on the throne in the Oval Office, and starts to proclaim his contemptuous, undisciplined, self-serving measures using a megaphone. The empress starts to put on make-up and play with her mobile phone while leaning on the tree trunks next to the Oval Office.

The squawk of the megaphone and the deranged phantasmagorias flood the village, and the Jacobines listen to the ridiculous absurdities with their faces frozen in disbelief: the curtailing of noble freedoms, threats of hanging on the gallows for adopting foreign ideas, the purchase of Madagascar, land grab in Gaza, and Greenland, as well!

As dusk is falling, the Jacobines slip into their cloaks and gather in the barn. They pull out their booklet and write down the deranged absurdities of the emperor as questions, and formulate their own answers. The scribe writes down everything unerringly, while the others have a look of agitated determination in their eyes.

Meanwhile, near the Oval Office, the emperor and the driver play with balls with “Mars” written on them, throwing them to each other not caring about the empress. A drumbeat is audible from the barn. One Jacobine is playing a shamanic drum. A small fire is burning and the Jacobines begin a rhythmic dance around it. The sound of the shamanic drum changes into a rave, filled with ecstasy; the Jacobine lose control and burst into a feverish frenzy. The emperor is snoring and the empress is quietly wheezing, "Mars" balls scattered around them.

In the middle of the night, dream and ecstasy become one: the Jacobins meet the Emperor...

THE GOAL AND IMPACT OF THE FILM

The Jacobines represent the 18th century Enlightenment and civic revolution. This is why we chose this historical era and these characters. According to the story, even if the emperor’s power is threatening society and its pressure seems unbearable, a group of self-confident liberal thinking Jacobines is able to preserve their land, their ideas and their strong community. Money and power cannot take away their identity and pride. We will distribute the film to well-known film festivals and organize community film-screenings, as well. With this story we want to work towards a better future and show that we believe in the possibility of positive change.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN (4500 EUR)

800 EUR meals, travel costs and room renting at the shooting venue

700 EUR props, costuming and make-up design

1000 EUR camera, sound and light equipment

1500 EUR fees of professional crew members

500 EUR Project coordination

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

We are a passionate, dedicated, skilled and hard-working team. As most of the scenes take place outside in early May, rainy weather can be a risk. In that case we will need to arrange extra shooting days. Even though the actors, who are our community members, will play in the film for free, film-making has technical costs and we will need to hire a few professional crew members. We are reaching out to you, our local and international networks for crucial assistance to making this project.  Your donations, large or small, is what will make this project happen.  Thank you!

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

These are trying times! It's scary out there, and we totally understand if you can't help out financially. If anything, please share this campaign on social media! It'll really help us out. Spread the word! Tell your friends. Make them tell their friends. Tell your coworkers. Share with your roommates. Use IndieGoGo sharing tools if you don't know where to start.