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If we’ve learned anything from the last few years of polarized political discourse surrounding everything from gun control to gender identity, it’s that when somebody pulls out the “won’t somebody please think of the children” card, the children are rarely the first thing on their mind. Even as it plays out on a specifically Hungarian social landscape, the satire of Gábor Reisz’s astute, drily funny third feature “Explanation for Everything” — in which an underachieving high-schooler becomes a right-wing cause célèbre on the strength of some dicey tabloid reporting — resonates more widely. Escalatingly absurd but underpinned by a mordant plausibility throughout, this confidently imposing work is among the high points of this year’s Orizzonti sidebar at Venice.

Reisz scored a domestic hit, and made a strong impression on the international festival circuit, with his 2014 debut, the endearingly scruffy quarter-life crisis comedy “For Some Inexplicable Reason.” His...

Hungarian director’s third film explores the tensions of a polarised society.

Films Boutique has boarded international sales on Hungarian director Gábor Reisz’s Explanation For Everything which will world premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section.

Written and directed by Reisz and co-written with Éva Schulze, Explanation For Everything is set during a summer in Budapest. High school student Abel is struggling to focus on his final exams, while coming to the realisation that he is hopelessly in love with his best friend Janka.

Explanation For Everything is one of 18 titles playing in Horizons. When announcing the Venice line-up yesterday,...