Budapest’s Bubbles self-service laundromats provide the city with more than pleasant places to clean clothes – the management also strives to support emerging artists. After dreaming up an unconventional project, the business provided an opportunity for three up-and-coming Hungarian film directors to create stories set in the laundromat, offering complete background support for the film shoots. From that point on, the young cineastes were given a free hand in the stories that they presented, creating a trio of cool mini-movies complete with English subtitles and narration – watch them below!
Ross and Rachel already knew how to make a scene in a laundry, and eyes meeting over laundry baskets are still indispensable accessories of American films. Laundromats first became popular in Hungary in 2011, when the Bubbles Self-service Laundry launched to provide multiple locations around Budapest. By this point, Bubbles allows us to wash our clothes and enjoy each other’s company at 26 units nationwide. While the shirts and socks spin around in the washing machine, we can relax on comfortable sofas and connect with the other customers – whether or not that succeeds is solely up to us. The finished short films tell three different stories and share not only their location, but also their main theme of getting acquainted.
The unconventional campaign’s creative director is Bence Bodnár, who was playing with the idea in his head even before he received a request from the franchise. “I lived near one of the laundries and walked by it every morning. There was always someone sitting inside, always very different from the previous one, and each with a different story. We wanted to show these interesting life situations while tying the stories to a typical film location. The whole team worked together professionally – I would jump into the next joint project without a moment of hesitation.”
Below we are happy to share the three films, and you can also check out all of them on YouTube!
The directors of Laundry,Nándi Lőrincz and Bálint Nagy, really enjoyed working on their production, even though they only had one day for the shoot. They told us funny backstage secrets about protagonist Gusztáv Molnár, for example: “It was both stressful and funny to get Guszti to cry so many times. It is incomprehensible how there was enough liquid in his tear glands to last through the filming. And another piece of trivia: one of the film’s producers, Bori Szelei, also plays one of the female characters in the short film.”
The short film Missed Moments was directed by Menzkie, aka René Mednyánszki, and the main characters are Zsolt Nagy and Hermina Fátyol. When asked what most caught his interest in the project, he said, “Complete creative freedom is a big advantage, and the only restriction was a good challenge. I always liked these American-style laundries, and often thought of it as a film location.”
The director of Clean Clothes is Ramas Carlos, who presents the love story of Juli Jakab and a writer from Tenerife in his short film. The producers of all three films, including this one, were Peti Ráday and Bori Szelei (Melvin Productions), who expressed their appreciation towards the staff: “We formed a very interesting and colorful team. The creations reflect the directors’ personalities perfectly. When we received the three scripts, we smiled, because even though they worked independently, all stories focused on the romantic encounter of a man and a woman. Complete informality created a common backbone.”
