Literature

Géza Bereményi

television

A 20-year-old writer, an upcoming literary talent spends his days sitting by his typewriter, feverishly searching for a novel subject. He suddenly has an idea: to write about a spy who is lying low in Budapest. He immediately sets to work on the novel, and the spy-story comes alive in the film.

The imaginary events start off promisingly enough, however, the writer is sometimes jolted back to reality. Either his dying grandmother calls him bawling for her lunch, or his mother gets home from work at night. Strange visitors sometimes turn up from the street, just like in real life. And as the novel's plot proceeds, the writer weaves the characters of his real life into the story one by one, as his imagination dictates. Yet the real hero of both worlds is an old woman, his terminally ill grandmother, who - nearing her last hours - gives life-long illuminating lessons to her grandson, who is befuddled by his own literary activities.