{"id":50973,"date":"2026-06-23T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/?p=50973"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:32:57","slug":"slovak-hungarian-documentary-my-fathers-daughter-eight-years-of-director-lea-podhradskas-search-for-her-half-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/en\/blog\/news\/2026\/06\/slovak-hungarian-documentary-my-fathers-daughter-eight-years-of-director-lea-podhradskas-search-for-her-half-sister\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovak-Hungarian documentary My Father’s Daughter: eight years of director Lea Podhradsk\u00e1’s search for her half-sister"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, 21 June 2026 at 16.00, the Slovak-Hungarian feature documentary My Father’s Daughter<\/em> (original title Ap\u00e1m l\u00e1nya<\/em>) had its festival screening at Kulturpark JOJ Cinema in the International Competition of Films from Central and Eastern Europe vying for the Blue Angel award. The seventy-seven-minute film by Slovak director of Hungarian nationality Lea Podhradsk\u00e1 was born from her personal search for her half-sister, of whom she learned after twenty-seven years that she was alive. The Ko\u0161ice premiere was the film’s first showing before a Slovak-speaking audience. The introduction and the discussion after the film were given by the director together with cinematographer Kriszti\u00e1n Oll\u00e1ri.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Lea Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong>, the film began deeply personally. \u201cEight years ago I found out that my half-sister was alive \u2014 and I decided to find her. At first I had no intention of making any film, because nobody wants to put their own family in front of the public. But gradually I discovered so many small things that I had the feeling it was no longer just about me and my family \u2014 there was something bigger there,\u201d<\/em> the director explained. In her search she approached many relatives and each of them told her something different about her lost sister. \u201cI felt that we were talking about one person, but I was hearing about ten different sisters. That diversity of characters led me, as a filmmaker, to say: maybe there is a film in this,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n

For someone who was at once director, sister and family member, making the film was a search for balance. \u201cYou play three roles at once: you are the director, you are the sister of the person you are looking for, and you are also a family member. What is good for the sister is not necessarily good for the director \u2014 and vice versa. The hardest part was deciding what, from what I had found, not to show at all. Finding someone after 27 years meant a waterfall of stories, often very unpleasant and tragic. I had to draw a line: this I can offer to the viewer, this I cannot. I believe viewers are not silly, and sometimes silence carries more meaning than words,\u201d<\/em> Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

The film also gives its own place to Podhradsk\u00e1’s<\/strong> childhood imagination. \u201cAs a child I imagined that she was alive. I pictured her at the seaside, in beautiful dresses and high heels, in a yellow house \u2014 and around it there was always some little blue bird. This version of mine is brought into the film through animation,\u201d<\/em> the director said. To the other family members she gave space in the film to speak for themselves. \u201cIt was important to me that no one who took part in the film would ever regret being part of it. And sometimes it is stronger to let people simply sit in their own safe space than to add another cinematic layer of archive or animation,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n

During production, Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong> was afraid the story was too personal and the audience would not identify with it. That fear was dispelled by the first screening in Budapest in front of about three hundred viewers. \u201cThere was a Q&A after the screening. The hall was completely dark, I was expecting questions about the film \u2014 and instead, people stood up and in the dark began to tell their own family stories. One woman talked and cried for more than a quarter of an hour. It was like a public family-constellation session \u2014 for three hundred people. That was when I understood that the film is not really about me or about my sister at all \u2014 it is about a more general problem of taboo and about how things in families are simply accepted, instead of being questioned,\u201d<\/em> she summed up. In her own family, however, nothing changed after the film \u2014 Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong> admits: \u201cI had expectations that after twenty-seven years we would finally open up the conversation. The truth is that everything continues as it was: whoever supported her still supports her, and whoever was against her stays against her.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Slovak festival screening was her first encounter with a Slovak-speaking audience. \u201cI have always been curious how the film would be received outside the Hungarian-speaking environment. We come from the same cultural world but we speak different languages. The film is based on narration and the viewer has to read subtitles. I’m curious how it will sound at home,\u201d<\/em> Lea Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

After this demanding personal film, Podhradsk\u00e1<\/strong> is now seeking rest in a different genre. \u201cAfter this film I need a lot of fun. I have decided that my next project will be a comedy \u2014 I love absurd comedies. A year ago I came across a legend from a Hungarian village not far from Bratislava that fascinated me and would not let me sleep. It will be a fiction film with its own characters, conflict and dramaturgy,\u201d<\/em> the director revealed.<\/p>\n