窒息 (2023)

"Following a script that could have come straight from the headlines of the most sensational Greek media outlets just a few months ago (and their account of Shower Boys), Without Air takes us down the deepest corridors of a modern-day Hungarian high school. Here, a young ambitious teacher suggests that her students watch Agnieszka Holland’s film Total Eclipse, a fierce biography dealing with the passionate relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, as a means to gain a deeper understanding of the potes maudits’ poetry. However, when one student's father stumbles upon a segment of the film, he accuses the school of promoting homosexuality, leading to a scandal. While Hungary may have transformed into one of the most conservative and regressive countries in Europe recently, this brave, thoughtful, and captivating film underlines clearly that no social environment is immune to hatred and obscurantism."