''Jupiter's Moon'' ( hu, Jupiter holdja) is a 2017 Hungarian
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Kornél Mundruczó
Kornél Mundruczó (; born 3 April 1975) is a Hungarian film and theatre director. He has directed 18 short and feature films between 1998 and 2020. His film ''Johanna'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2005 Cannes Film Fes ...
. It competed for the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
in the main competition section at the
2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Aryan Dashni from
Homs,
Syria, and his father are part of a group of refugees trying to cross the
Hungarian border via boat. During the border crossing, Aryan and his father lose their papers and are separated when the group is discovered by a
border guard
A border guard of a country is a national security agency that performs border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Germany, Italy or Ukraine) and rescue service duties.
Name and uniform
In diff ...
unit and chaos ensues. Aryan is shot several times by police officer László, but instead of dying he mysteriously obtains the power to levitate. When he falls back down to earth he is apprehended and brought to the hospital ward of the closest refugee camp.
Gábor Stern is a doctor who works at the hospital ward of the refugee camp. He worked at a normal hospital before, but one night when drunk he made a mistake during surgery which killed an aspiring young athlete; he lost his job at the hospital and was sued by the victim's family. He is now trying to obtain enough money to bribe the family to drop their lawsuit. He does this by selling medical referrals to refugees which let them go from the camp to a hospital in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
from where they can flee. His girlfriend Vera, a doctor at the hospital, is in on the scheme.
Gábor is seen selling one of the referrals to a refugee who had been in Aryan's group and who uses the name of Aryan's father, using the documents he had stolen from the Dashnis during the chaotic border crossing. It is also shown that Aryan's father is one of the many refugees who drowned during the border crossing. When Gábor comes to the ward and tries to examine Aryan, he begins to levitate again. Shocked and fascinated, Gábor helps Aryan flee the camp and makes him an offer: Gábor will bring Aryan to Budapest, where he will play a
spiritual healer and use Aryan as an assistant who will show off his new talents to impress their patients/victims. They will share the money earned, and once they made enough money Gábor will help Aryan find his father.
The first healing sessions are successful and they make a lot of money. But László, who also knows about Aryan's abilities, is closely following both using the help of the police forces. They manage to escape the police several times with the help of Vera.
When Aryan goes to the illicit refugee camp at
Budapest Keleti railway station
Budapest Keleti (Eastern) station ( hu, Keleti pályaudvar) is the main international and inter-city railway terminal in Budapest, Hungary.
The station stands where Rákóczi út splits to become Kerepesi Avenue and Thököly Avenue. Keleti p� ...
, where his father had told him to meet up in case they were separated, he notices the other refugee who stole their papers. That other refugee is part of a terrorist plot to bomb the
Budapest Metro
The Budapest Metro ( hu, Budapesti metró) is the rapid transit system in the Hungarian capital Budapest. It is the world's oldest electrified underground railway system, and the second oldest underground railway system with multiple stations, ...
. When Aryan follows the terrorist, Gábor loses contact with him. Both Aryan and the terrorist enter a subway, and seconds later the bomb that the terrorist is carrying explodes, killing dozens of people, although Aryan is not wounded badly. He leaves the subway and floats to the roof of a nearby apartment building, being watched by a shocked woman.
After losing Aryan, thinking he has died, and finding out that Aryan's father has died, Gábor feels deep remorse for exploiting Aryan. He goes to the family of the man his medical malpractice killed and gives them his money as a bribe. When they refuse the money, he sincerely asks for forgiveness for his mistake and leaves.
When he returns to the place of the terrorist attack, he overhears a woman who prays for an "angel" who "flew to the sky". Gábor correctly deduces that Aryan floated onto the roof of a building and finds him there. Gábor tells him that his father has died, they embrace, and Gábor brings Aryan back to the hospital to tend to his wounds, asking Vera for help again. But since the terrorist used the Dashnis' papers, everyone now believes Aryan to be one of the terrorists. Vera calls the police. Gábor and Aryan manage to flee after a car chase and after Aryan uses his abilities again.
They take refuge in a hotel. When Gábor goes out to get help from a medic, he is betrayed and is apprehended by László. He tells the police where they can find Aryan, and he is brought to the hotel. Once inside the hotel's elevator, Gábor tries to escape but is knocked down by Laszlo, who continues on alone to Aryan's room. Laszlo apprehends Aryan and brings him down to the hotel lobby, but Gabor manages to overpower a policeman and takes his gun, holding him hostage. This allows Aryan to get away from Laszlo, but Gabor is shot. In the elevator, they use a cigarette to set off the fire alarm, and Gabor tells Ayran to get to a fire escape and fly away. When Aryan is cornered in a hotel hallway by László, Gábor arrives just in time to threaten László with a gun and give Aryan time to jump through a window and float away. Gábor dies and László runs to the window to shoot Aryan, but he lowers his weapon after hesitating. The final scene shows hundreds of people looking to the sky in amazement.
Cast
*
Merab Ninidze
Merab Ninidze ( ka, მერაბ ნინიძე; born 3 November 1965) is a Georgian actor. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for the roles of Walter Redlich in '' Nowhere in Africa'' and Oleg Penkovsky in '' The Courier''.
...
as Gábor Stern
*
György Cserhalmi
György Cserhalmi (born 17 February 1948, in Budapest) is a Hungarian actor. He graduated from the Actors Academy in 1971. He is also the founder of the Labdater Theatre in the Globe cultural centre.
Employment
*1971: Debrecen Csokonai Theat ...
as László
*
Mónika Balsai
Mónika Balsai (born 13 December 1977 in Vác) is a Hungarian actress.
Selected filmography
*''Liza, the Fox-Fairy'' (2015)
*'' Kills on Wheels'' (2016)
*''Jupiter's Moon
''Jupiter's Moon'' ( hu, Jupiter holdja) is a 2017 Hungarian drama fi ...
as Vera
*
Zsombor Jéger as Aryan Dashni
*
Péter Haumann
Péter Haumann (17 May 1941 – 28 May 2022) was a Hungarian actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films since 1962.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
1941 births
2022 deaths
Hungarian male film actors
Male ...
as Zentai
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 50%, based on 38 reviews, and an average rating of 5.5/10. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jupiter's Moon
2017 films
2017 drama films
Hungarian drama films
2010s Hungarian-language films
Films directed by Kornél Mundruczó
Films scored by Jed Kurzel
Films set in Budapest
Films about immigration
Films about the Syrian civil war