Our favourites for the Film Week Vol. 1.

Nominations for the 39th Hungarian Film Week were accepted until 20th November.

1.) Kornél Mundruczó: Delta (expected premiere: Film Week in 2008.)

Lajos Bertók’s death jeopardized the completion of Kornél Mundruczó’s new film, Delta. After some months of uncertainty, it was finally reshot in the delta of the River Danube, with Félix Lajkó in the leading role. We do hope the film, which is based on two classical dramas - Hamlet by Shakespeare and Electra by Euripides - will be finally presented at the Film Week. “The man returns home for his father’s burial after twenty years of absence, when his own mother sent him away. He meets his sister for the first time and they immediately fall in love with each other. They realize that their father was killed by their mother and her lover and decide to avenge their father’s murder.”

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Kornél Mundruczó, Viktória Petrányi

2.) Szabolcs Tolnai: Hourglass (expected premiere: Film Week in 2008.)

Szabolcs Tolnai’s film almost fell through after the beak-up of Serbia and Montenegro, as the ministry, which should have paid the Serbian coproduction partner’s money, was dissolved. After many vicissitudes the black-and-white film was finally finished. It is based on Danilo Kis’ novel with the same title, presenting the growing up of a little boy, who is in search of his father. This work may remind the viewers of Borges’ world, as the quest for the ego and the father becomes a huge labyrinth with the same starting point and end. Hourglass won the Award for Best Direction and Best Sound at the first Serbian Film Festival, and at the Serbian Producers’ Festival was honoured with the best Serbian film by the FIPRESCI critics.

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3.) Róbert Alföldi: Calmness (expected premiere: Film Week in 2008.)

Róbert Alföldi’s first feature is also an adaptation, based on Attila Bartis’ highly successful novel, Calmness. “Calmness is a very heavy writing. It is about the quest for happiness through a disturbing relationship between a mother and her son. (...) Because we do hate our parents, because we are at the mercy of our parents, because they determine our whole life, because we drag tham along for a lifetime. And vice versa. This instinctive love binds us and makes it impossible to have such close relationship with others.” – says the director. Zalán Makranczi, Dorka Gryllus, Dorottya Udvaros and Judit Hernádi play the main roles. Bartis’ novel is very popular in the German-speaking countries, so the filmmakers hope they can start the international career of the film at the Berlinale.

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Dorottya Udvaros
 
4.) Benedek Fliegauf: Milky Way (expected premiere: Film Week in 2008.)

Benedek Fliegauf’s ambient movie gained instant notoriety before its release: the unusual nature film debuted in Locarno and won the Golden Leopard. According to the critic of Variety, Milky Way can be interpreted as a gallery installation, rather than a film. Former reports reveal the aim of the filmmakers: “this is a multi-layered, metaphysical, hypnotic experience, in which enough space is provided for a wide scope of interpretation.” Later the director confirmed that this is not a typical film: “In this movie not man is in the focus of attention. Man is treated on equal terms with the landscape and environment around him. This is not a typical feature film point of view. This is an alien’s point of view.”

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5) Gábor Dettre: The tableau (Roma cop/Ant burning) (expected premiere: Film Week in 2008.)

The originally called Roma cop and Ant burning, later changed to The tableau is based on Ákos Kertész’ novel, The Price of Hatred. The screening of the film was cancelled in the last minute before the 38th Film Week. The premiere had to be postponed as the director, Gábor Dettre and the producer, László Kántor couldn’t come to an agreement concerning the possible length of the film. In the end besides the two hour long version, four fifty minute long episodes will also be shown on TV.

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6.) Béla Tarr: The Man from London

Under the present circumstances the 39th Hungarian Film Week won’t be opened by Béla Tarr’s film, therefore TT Filmworkshop, the producer of the film, organises a special premiere for The Man from London. We do hope that the film, which is an adaptation of a Georges Simenon crime story and which started its national festival career at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, will be presented in some form or other.

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7.) Pater Sparrow: 1

The starting point of the director’s first feature film is an essay by Stanislav Lem, One Human Minute. An unusual criminal case is investigated by the authorities, the future- and imaginary reality defensive office. We even managed to find out about the film, that “this original sci-fi tries to present almanacwise what can happen to humankind in one single minute with the help of news, fiction and narration. The director aims at using eclectic visual forms of expression in his unusual and original work.”

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8.) Ferenc Moldoványi: Another Planet

This documentary-feature was shot in three different continents: after Congo and Mexico, the filming was finished in Cambodia. The music was composed by Tibor Szemző, and the film was photographed by Tibor Máthé. The unusual and mysterious film, in which documentary and fictional elements are also blended, was shot on 16 mm Kodak film, but the filmmakers intend to show it in the feature films section printed out on 35 mm and with Dolby Stereo sound.

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9.) Róbert Lakatos: Bahrtalo

The filmmakers made a 25 minute long documentary film, which was later completed and now it is nominated as a feature film, with a shortened TV version too. In this neorealistic comedy, the two main characters, Lóri and Lali, after their unlucky adventures in Austria and Romania, are in Egypt, where they are still planning to make big money.

10.) Tamás Almási: Mario, the Magician

The acclaimed documentarist Tamás Almási made a feature film this time. According to the story of Mario, the Magician, around 1990-91 the manager of an Italian shoe company – portrayed by Franco Nero - arrives in a remote village in Zemplén, and the life of the villagers suddenly turns upside down. The local people expect work and wealth from the stranger, and one of them falls is love with him. The woman is Júlia Nyakó, who played the role of the mother in Fresh air. The story, which follows the events throughout fifteen years, is a special blend of genres, it is sociographic and points beyond reality, but also shows our life since the change of regime in a very expressive way. The motives of the original Thomas Mann work are adapted by Margit Halász.

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To be continued.