The Swimmer

Hngary, 1956. Without a word, Katalin leaves her family and sets out for the West. Her husband, Kalman, abandons the family farm and begins a long journey through Hungary with their two young children, Kata and Isti. His only purpose is to keep moving. Staying with distant relatives in unfamiliar cities and villages for varying lengths of time, he shuns anything resembling a home or a steady life, sinking into depression that drives the children to create their own imaginary universe: Kata invents relationships with the people they meet during their long journey while Isti converses with the natural world around him. It is only in rare moments, on riverbanks and lakeshores where Kata and Isti swim with their father, that they experience moments of calm and wonder if they will ever see their mother again.