Imagine a love story unfolding in 1930s Budapest, between stone walls and iron bars. At its centre is an assassin awaiting execution who has lived their entire life as a “man”. Emilia Goldberg’s Mayflies (original title: Pipás) begins exactly there: from crime files, court records, and a legend passed down in whispers, it crafts a raw, multilayered human story.
A True Story: Who Was Pipás Pista?
The film is inspired by the notorious 1930s figure Pipás Pista. Known in the countryside as a hired killer who “took care of” husbands for women who wanted them gone, Pista was universally regarded as a man—until arrest and a death sentence revealed that he had been born female. Suddenly the question “who is this person?” plunged far deeper.
Goldberg rebuilds this sensational true-crime case not merely as a murder file, but through the lenses of identity, body, desire, and collision with society. We watch Pipás (Orsolya Török-Illyés) neither as a “monster” nor simply a “victim,” but as a fragile yet stubborn individual forced to perform a role in order to survive and exist outside the lines.
Death Row, the Chaplain’s Daughter, and a Love Running Out of Time
The film’s most striking element is the way all these layers of identity intertwine with a forbidden love. While on death row, Pipás meets Irma (Natasa Stork), the prison chaplain’s daughter. From the street, the church, or the justice system, everything looks wrong: one is a convicted murderer, the other a young woman raised inside religious and moral order. Yet this is where cinema steps in; it sets aside the list of right and wrong and focuses on how these two people manage to look at each other, to touch each other.
As the countdown to the execution begins, every meeting, every sentence, every glance grows heavier. Over time the film stops being a “crime story” and becomes a love with an expiration date. The relationship between Pipás and Irma opens a space that probes the boundaries of both body and soul: what is identity, who is love “suitable” for, who can be forgiven and who can never be?
Identity, Performance, and History’s Blind Spots
Mayflies places a debate that feels very contemporary to us today into the language, costumes, and moral universe of the 1930s:
Is identity a label glued to our bodies at birth, or something we construct as we live?
Does society treat anyone who doesn’t fit that label as a bewildered “threat,” or simply prefer not to see them at all?
Pipás spending an entire lifetime “as a man” is presented not merely as a masquerade, but as the only way to survive and have agency in that era. In this sense, the film takes a figure history books mention in a single sentence and turns them into a mirror reflecting today’s discussions.
Goldberg approaches gender identity not as a “label war” but from a deeply human place: a person is whoever they carry inside; whether the world accepts it or not is often the beginning of tragedy.
Beyond Crime: Humanising a Killer
We’ve grown used to true-crime stories in recent years, but Mayflies avoids the genre’s easy traps. Murders, files, and court verdicts are present, of course, yet instead of lingering over them the camera takes us into the prison’s silences, the glances exchanged in interrogation rooms, the nights spent alone in a cell.
Something unsettling happens while watching Pipás: you want to be angry at the “criminal,” to hate them, but the film constantly keeps you at eye level; it seats you at the same table rather than in the judge’s chair. At some point crime fades into the background and you start wondering how this person became who they are, how the years of hiding identity and the weight of class and social pressure turned into an inner violence.
Central European Atmosphere: Damp Walls, Heavy Air
The visual world is pure Central European arthouse tradition: dim light, heavy rhythm, long takes that make you feel the space. The 1930s Budapest prison is not just décor—it is a character in its own right. Damp walls, narrow corridors, the metallic clang every time an iron door opens—all create a rhythm that tightens your chest throughout.
Emilia Goldberg chooses atmosphere over flashy production; a deliberate slowness, a tempo that gives room to the character’s inner world, a patient storytelling style. For that reason Mayflies is not a “light” festival film; you need to dim the lights a little, put the phone aside, and be willing to step inside its world.
The Unseen Face of Love, Faith, and Justice
The relationship between Irma and Pipás is not merely a romantic subplot; through them the film also examines the era’s belief systems and notions of justice. On one side an institution that speaks of God’s mercy; on the other a human being walking toward execution inside that same institution. The contradiction sharpens with Irma’s presence.
The chaplain’s daughter begins as a figure “belonging to the order,” yet gradually becomes someone who cracks that order from within. She is caught between the values her father represents and where her heart leads her. This conflict lifts the film beyond “the killer’s story” and poses a larger question:
When is justice truly served—when the court decides, or when one person recognises another’s right to exist humanely?
Who Should Watch It, When, and Where?
Mayflies is not an easy, “two-hour distraction” film. But if you love heavy, finely crafted European dramas; if you’re drawn to stories where identity, history, forbidden love, crime, and justice tangle together—this absolutely belongs on your radar.
For history buffs: a figure buried in the footnotes of 1930s Hungary is summoned back onto the stage.
For those interested in identity politics and queer history: a cinematic trace of an identity that “existed” long before modern concepts emerged.
For festival followers: the scenes between Orsolya Török-Illyés and Natasa Stork promise performances that will be talked about for a long time.
The film opens in German cinemas on 6 November 2025 and is expected to reach a wider audience on Prime Video soon after. In other words, you can already add another line to your “difficult but good” watch list.
