The Cinematheque

Hungary

“[The] standout of Hungary’s upcoming productions.”

Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa

This handsome historical drama, based on a true story, is set in Vienna in 1847. It revolves around medical pioneer Ignác Semmelweis, a short-tempered but passionate Hungarian doctor struggling to find a cure for a mysterious fever that is killing patients—mothers and their babies—in the maternity ward he oversees. His considerable ambition and his research method soon draw the disfavour of his superiors, who order him to stop. They even enlist a young midwife named Emma to secretly spy on him. After a turbulent first encounter, the relationship between Ignác and Emma grows into something more than merely professional. As the fever spreads and with half his peers discrediting him, the tenacious doctor carries on his fight to discover a cure, with Emma by his side. Meanwhile, outside the hospital walls, a social powder keg of political and revolutionary forces is about to explode.

In Hungarian with English subtitles