Dolina and Happy New Life at Karlovy Vary

Two Hungarian films have been selected to screen at the 42nd Karlovy Vary Film Festival (June 29-July 7).

The fourth feature by the director, who was discovered in the Un Certain Regard at Cannes 1991 with Paths of Death and Angels and acclaimed in competition at Berlin 2002 with Temptations, stars an international cast: Italy’s Adriano Giannini and Stefania Rivi; Hungarians Piroska Molnár, János Derzsi and János Bán; Romanians Ioana Abur and Coca Bloss; and Ukranian actor Zsolt Trill.

Winner of Best First Film at this year’s Hungarian Film Week and selected in the Panorama section of the 2007 Berlinale, Árpád Bogdán’s Happy New Life will compete at Karlovy Vary in the East of the West section. Starring amateur actor Lajos Orsós, Michaela Göczi and István Szilvási, the feature – from the slate of Laokoon Film with backing from the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary and the Hungarian Minister of Culture – follows a young teenager, Rom, brought up in the sheltered world of a children’s home and who finds himself thrust into an outer world, where he faces enormous difficulties to adapt.

Also featuring in the East of the West programme is Serbian/German/Hungarian co-production The Trap by Srdan Golubovic, a film funded by Hungary’s Új Budapest Filmstúdió.

sources: kviff.com and cineuropa