The Undiscovered Country - Synopsis

SIR MICHAEL GIFFORD, retired actor and knight of the realm has an assortment of letters after his name, although he has long since forgotten most of them, as the abbreviation most frequently associated with him these days is CBD - a condition gradually robbing him of his intellectual and physical capabilities.

Stanka, a young woman speaking broken English enters his life as his carer. She is somewhat of a mystery, giving nothing away about her past or why she has left her native Hungary.

The hopes of improving her English language skills run afoul of Sir Michael’s speech impediment, just one of the many symptoms of a rapidly deteriorating mind and body. Yet, the more Sir Michael loses his grip on reality, the more obsessed he becomes with maintaining his daily routine, as the rites of a quintessential Englishman become the last anchors tying him to this world.

And he hates his free spirited and fiercely independent companion, whose idea of a schedule is governed by mere whims or even worse: by practical considerations, and who would not adhere to the strict rules of the house. But most of all he hates her because of the inequities caused by his failing body and of the humiliation of the diaper.

But gradually Stanka and Sir Michael are getting on quite well. He who has not uttered a full word in a year (and had therefore been regarded to be also deaf and been maligned by his family) now teaches her English with the words of Richard II., his trademark role, which he always wanted to cast as a woman. He now directs Stanka with grunts and grumbling, by movements of the eye and conducting with his index finger. In fact, their whole relationship resembles a silent movie; exaggerated facial expressions interspersed by brief text messages they send to each other. Because the mobile phone that Stanka buys for Sir Michael despite his protestations, becomes their lifeline.

It also turns out to be the very device that changes Stanka’s life, as the mystery surrounding her past is finally revealed by the arrival of Ivan, a Hungarian documentary maker.

Sir Michael is determined to spend his last months helping her. And thus while his life ends – Stanka’s can begin again.