Train to Adulthood

A Communist relic, the Budapest Children’s Railway survives and thrives, offering over 500 kids a refuge from the poverty of their capitalist reality. For young siblings, Viktor and Carmen, the military discipline of the railway is a relief from the spectre of homelessness that dogs them and their single mother. Via an unpredictable Skype connection, Gergo chats to his migrant parents who, from far away Germany, try to lure their son away from Hungary. As the railway children ferry those better-off, boys and girls unfamiliar with the cares they must shoulder, the seasons change and time passes with the unrelenting speed of a train engine. Train To Adulthood presents a gorgeous, heart-rending coming-of-age saga, raising the question: What is childhood? Is it a place that we leave, or can ever return to?

Leipzig DOK Festival 2015 Golden Dove