The Extraordinary Life of Aunt Emmi

Emma Nemeskéri blew out 100 candles on her birthday cake on December 6th 2016. She started to work as an optician in 1937, in Lajos Libál’s shop in downtown Budapest, quite a unique shop in the Hungary of the time. She retired from there at the age of 99 in 2016.

Mme Emma was born in 1916, the youngest of five in a time when thousands of Hungarian children were living in poverty. Having been sent abroad, first to Belgium at the age of six, then to Switzerland, she had to re-learn her native Hungarian when she came back at the age of 12. She survived a direct hit during the bombings of World War 2, which – in her own words – was an irrevocable “life sentence”.

Mme Emmi’s memories, the scenes where her life played out, the faces of Budapest old and new appear like as many living postcards. As we glimpse into the world of optometry in a time when fake eyes sold very well indeed, we also learn about the changing requirements of customers over the years.

Our film is a portrait of a person and a documentary of an age in one. It chronicles the 20th century through the story of a genial, ever-smiling lady of 101, with charm, humor, practical realities and every day battles of people now gone. The film connects us to parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, the country and the capital through a mesmerizing lady.