Synopsis
Hippo examines the coming of age of two step-siblings: Hippo, a video game-addicted teenager, and Buttercup, a Hungarian Catholic immigrant with a love of classical music and Jesus. Like the Ancient Greek Aphrodite, Buttercup’s love is unrequited by a brother who prefers to indulge in the art of war and chaos. The result is a hormone-fueled, tragicomic waking nightmare that must be seen to be believed.
A Word from Director Mark H. Rapaport
Though my mother would protest, Hippo is my attempt to capture the tumult of my teenage years. I grew up in a very religious community, so ‘coming of age’ and learning about things like sex did not exactly come standard. There was a lot of guesswork. A lot of misunderstandings. A lot of late nights on the Internet. A lot of shame.
This film is a hug to my younger self. The type of hug your therapist gives you after your last session, when you tell them you’re moving to a new city and that you don’t think you’ll need therapy anymore (but you do — and you are not actually moving, it just got too expensive). It is also a cautionary tale on the dangers of something we cannot avoid — having a fucked up family. You can escape a monster, a ghost, even a vampire — but you cannot escape your DNA. One can only attempt to overcome their ancestral quirks. This fact is both horrific and hilarious, and I revel in both sides.
Meet Lilla Kizlinger
Lilla is a 23-year-old Hungarian actress and film and theater director. She is best known for winning the Silver Bear at the 2021 Berlinale for the Best Supporting Performance for Forest – I See You Everywhere. Her filmography as an actress includes roles in short films such as Graduation Shoe, Affricate, Above the Clouds, The Love of Things One Can Lose, Pulzaar, and Voices of Disappearing Souls. She has also starred in feature films like Hippo, Explanation for Everything, Some Birds, and Semmelweis. Lilla’s work has been shown at prestigious festivals like Berlinale, Venice Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
As a director, Lilla has made two short films during college: Cables and The Centre of the Solar System. In 2022, she directed the stage play, “How Do I Make You Feel Better” at TÁP Theatre Budapest where she also played the lead role. In 2024, she directed the play, “Chewed Up, Spit Out” at Katona József Theatre also in Budapest. She has also directed several music videos for famous Hungarian bands like Carson Coma or Péterfy Bori and the Love band. She is currently living in Vienna, where she is pursuing her Master’s degree in Film Directing at the Filmakademie Wien.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with actor Lilla Kizlinger to discuss her new feature film, Hippo. They discuss the subdued and natural performance she gives, what it was like acting alongside the writer (Kimball Farley) of the film, shooting in black and white, and Eric Robert’s smooth and silky narration, among other topics.
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Lilla, how are you, ma’am?
Lilla Kizlinger:
Good, I just arrived back from Prague recently, and now I’m in Vienna! And how are you?
Glen Dower:
Very well, thank you. So, talking about Hippo, where you play the beautiful, wonderful Buttercup. What can you tell us about her?
Lilla Kizlinger:
Buttercup was adopted from Hungary by this American family, and she is really religious, she lost her dad when she was young, and she’s just a young girl with her young girl problems. Maybe she is the ‘most’ normal at the beginning of the movie, but afterward, in the end, she also becomes weird or makes weird decisions.
Glen Dower:
I don’t think we can blame her for those decisions, can we? So we’re told by Eric Roberts, as a narrator, that she “wants to fuck her brother” okay. But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I don’t think she has much choice around her, does she? And I think it comes from a very organic place where she lost her father, and there’s this emotional hole inside her that she wants to fill with a child. So I think that what makes Buttercup so special, is that everything she does comes from a place of warmth. Is that what attracted you to her? She just has a lot of love to give.
Lilla Kizlinger:
Yes, yes, exactly! I think you have recognized her issues really well. And yeah, I think if you are a child who gets adopted, I think it’s always an issue, and also an issue in a lot of different situations. But I can really imagine that she really just wants warmth. And also like that sentence you mentioned, she is in a very special situation where she’s just in a house with her family the whole time. It’s also unbelievable to us, to imagine living like that.
Glen Dower:
Yes. Your performance as her, it’s very quiet, very subtle, and almost minimal, especially at the start of the film. Did you work on making Buttercup very internal?
Lilla Kizlinger:
I think Mark, the director, he’s helped me a lot. But with that, it was really easy because he really wanted that natural acting. And also just have these emotions in your head, but you don’t have to always have the thoughts, even if you’re talking or even if you’re just looking. And I think this is one of the most important things, being present and seeing how important is every little thing, even if you are not talking or don’t have lines in the moment. I think it was because it was really well made by Mark and Kimball Farley who brought the script together. And I think everything was really obvious to me, like why she isn’t talking or what is she thinking. It was really nice to work with Mark on acting these things also.
Glen Dower:
Great. And you just mentioned Kimball Farley, who of course plays Hippo, is also the writer of the film. What was it like having the writer working opposite you?
Lilla Kizlinger:
I think when we were shooting Kimball wasn’t in a ‘writer position’. Of course, sometimes he and Mark would talk through some stuff like that, but like when we shooting, he was always in the present as an actor and didn’t change into the writer, which can be tricky if you are always changing and watching from different views. But I think they wrote together, then consulted while we shot the movie, but in the end, when we shot he was with us as an actor.
Glen Dower:
The writing and performances brought so much to the film but there are two areas that were added in post-production: the film being in black and white, which is beautiful. And also we have that voiceover, by Mr. Eric Roberts. What were your reactions when you saw black and white images and had that voiceover play, and it being cool, smooth, Eric Roberts, how did that feel?
Lilla Kizlinger:
Well, it was really amazing! When I saw the movie for the first time, I was in my home and watched it on a projector. I was like, Wow, it was really amazing to see the whole thing together and I don’t know, it was really, really, really good. And when I saw it on the big screen in Montreal where we had the premiere. I have seen it a few times but I’ve always loved to see how these pieces come together – what you saw or what you saw when you shot the movie. Of course, Eric Roberts’ voice gave us such a new aspect of the movie. And it’s always, always amazing when you see this come together and it’s something really good.
Glen Dower:
It is beautiful to behold. Well Lilla, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed Hippo. I really hope this audience and I think you’re wonderful in it. So the best of luck with the release and it was a pleasure to meet you.
Lilla Kizlinger:
It was a pleasure to meet you too, have a nice day.
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