Dissatisfaction underscores modern Frankenstein tale

There’s nothing very tender about this son. There’s a quite a resemblance with Frankenstein. He turns up at the building in Budapest where his mother is caretaker and presents her with a bunch of funereal white flowers. That’s about as tender as it gets. His mother untenderly rejects him and refuses to reveal the identity of his father to him.

Just when Rudolf (a real-life abandoned child who grew up in an orphanage and who had never acted before) turns up, a filmmaker is auditioning people in the building.

The director makes them relive moments of sadness in their lives so that they cry realistically in front of the camera.

It’s the Frankenstein story, with a string of unfortunate murders of those who should be close to Rudolf.

Kornél Mundruczò tells a tale of today, of un-love and what happens when people live lives of dissatisfaction and disconnection. He says that "Monsters are never really monsters, they are mirror images, we ourselves produce them… and then label them monsters."

All that is reflected in the colour palette in this film, which stretches from light grey to dark grey, with some touches of dull brown and pine green, before you reach the white, white snow. There’s always something pure and innocent about Frankenstein.

It’s 35-year old Mundruczò’s third time at Cannes. His second time round was in the main competition in 2008 with Delta.

His was one of the two films moved into the main competition after having been selected for the section Un Certain Regard.