Czakó Zsófia: Távoli rokonok

3:30 PM Café Stage

Zsófia Czakó: Distant Relatives

In conversation with Anna Ott

"It’s three in the morning, Margit is standing on top of the hill. She doesn’t like herself. She’s in her underwear, and her thighs are thick. They’ve never been this thick before. Her belly, like a blanket, hangs over her legs, her skin is wrinkled everywhere. Disgusting. What if her suitor comes and sees her like this? He’ll never marry her. Then no one will ever protect her. What if he sees that she’s fat, ugly, stupid, and an orphan? Then she’ll be left alone, and she’ll be miserable her whole life. She’s been standing on top of the hill—who knows for how long. The light of the full moon spreads wide, and she can see her shadow in it. A family of pheasants has settled at the base of the hillside; they don’t care about the strange figure of the small, bent-backed old woman. Margit fears that they are actually men. Men spying on her, dissatisfied with what they see... She wants to go home, to open her mouth and go home, but she can’t find it, can’t find anything in this dawn darkness, standing on the hill in just her underwear."

The front door is wide open, the curtains freshly washed, sunlight spreading across the tiles. Margit is scrubbing. She dips the rag in water, wrings it out, then rubs the shiny floor with strong strokes.

Then something happens. Somewhere, right now, something is becoming dirty. But what? And where? Margit waits, listens. It’s as if she can even hear how the dirt settles onto the clean surface. She turns. Pours out the dirty water. The flood sweeps the shoes away, the front door slams shut in the wind. Margit starts wiping the clean window with the filthy rag. Everything is getting more and more confused.

What is happening to Margit? What is her daughter doing on TV? But really—what’s the girl’s name, and why does she seem so familiar?

Struggling with forgetfulness, Margit drifts further and further from her family. She has spent her whole life cleaning and saving. Janka, her daughter, constantly makes unnecessary purchases; her granddaughter attends self-help workshops and doesn’t pick up the phone when her mother calls.

But really, how much do these three generations understand of each other’s lives?

A program by Scolar Publishing.