Time of the Twins

The twins, Rolli and Matty, where my first friends, when I moved to Halle (Saale) in Germany. They were then, and are to this day, the most atypical Germans I have ever met. There was also a strange tension, some sort of conflict in their relationship. Only after I experienced, how Matty sunk into a depressed state, we started to talk about bipolar disorder. I knew very little about this psychical illness at that time, but regardless, I was drawn to their unique world.
After I learned about their plans to go on this long tour through Poland all the way to Hungary and back, I decided, this could be an interesting opportunity, to follow them around with a camera. The time I had, for preparing for this documentary shoot, was very short. But I found the Werkleitz-Centre for Media Arts, who then kindly provided the technical equipment I needed. This is how I ended up with a video camera and couple of microphones on the back seat of their green van.
We were three weeks together on the road and in different cities along the way. By this time, Matty was the one, who was in a euphoric hyper state and Rolli left without much drive in a depressed state. I decided right at the beginning, what kind of an attitude I would like for my camera to have. Also, the schedule and the plan for our rout was changing sometimes drastically, so I sat out only to observe – I didn´t wanted to influence no outcome of the happenings. But ironically that is exactly, what happened in a kind of way. There was always an extra plate on the table and the twins genuinely wanted to show me a good time as well. They wanted me to experience a glimpse of the good old times, when their identity was not yet torn apart by their mental disorder. After we got home from this long trip, I was overwhelmed by what I have experienced alongside Rolli and Matty. That is where the large part of planning and inventing the movie began. My main collaborators where my colleagues from my first studies, László Dunai in editing and József Iszlai in creating the sound for the film – the same team, we made my diploma short film Parttalan together. Also, my youngest brother, Péter Visky Jr. got involved as a composer in the project and helped create the different emotional atmospheres for the characters in the movie. The postproduction of this documentary was completed in a 5-year period.