Sándor Reisenbüchler’s animated film of the Ferenc Juhász poem is a magical mythological tale featuring numerous folklore symbols, in which due to the horrors of war and the evil of man the Sun and the Moon vanished from the sky. This visionary film singing of the universal struggle between fairy tale Good and Evil was considered by the director a sort of ars poetica. The film was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1969.
Tag: HUNGARY
Fifth short film directed by István Szabó. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a Special Award. There is practically no argument, because it is nothing more than an act of love for Cecília Esztergályos, who at that time was Szabó’s girlfriend.
A prisoner attempts to have one forget the bleakness of prison existence through coloured crayon sketches drawn on the wall. However, the prison officer does not hesitate to stamp out even this small pleasure. Adapted from a press caricature, titled “Művészek/Artists” by György Várnai, which was published in 1966 in the popular satirical weekly “Ludas Matyi/Mattie the Gooseboy”.
Ulveczky, the unbridled bull of the village, is incapable of living in the small community like others. He runs his farm and lives his life as a tyrant. His licentious temperament leads him to take whatever he wants, women included, who are swept off their feet. His victims include a beautiful young girl who nearly dies when the man tires of her and ejects her from the farm. With great difficulty she restarts her life, hoping that she has finally freed herself of the brute who, however, does not let go so easily.
A film of high emotional impact and artistic control, One Day Crossing tells the story of a Jewish woman in Hungary who poses as a Christian to protect her family during the Holocaust. Inspired by director Stein’s own family history and created as her Columbia University graduate thesis project, this short work of fiction has garnered international acclaim for its power, craft and authority.
Package Tour is one of the key works processing the history of the Holocaust in Hungary. It features people who personally experienced the horrors of the death camps, thus based on their witness statements we learn of events first hand. At the time of its debut, in 1985, there was still a whole generation of survivors who could be reached out to and the Holocaust was part of a still living but long-held taboo social memory. However, the subjects of the interviews not only talk about the past but also reflect on the present.
Ivan’s best friend, Kamen, is in an American hospital, in coma after an accident. Since he’s denied a visa to the USA and can’t stay by his side in his last moments, Ivan decides to set off for Bulgaria countryside, taking the camera Kamen has given him. There’s a legend in Kamen’s place of birth – a small mountain village – that one song could bring people back to life. Ivan starts a journey to find it and record it, collecting a myriad of stories along the way. Will he succeed?