The Notebook
2011
The Film Union is Satisfied with Hungarian Performance in Berlin
Dallas is a Success
Éva Vezér, the managing director of the Film Union was optimistic in her interview with filmhu after the Berlin Film Festival. She said that „something has started”, which is due to the festival successes of the past years as well as the benefits offered by the Film Law and the recent coproductions. Last year Hungarian films were screened at 28 international festivals.
Róbert Pejo’s Dallas Pashmende, which was screened in the Panorama section, had the biggest success among Hungarian films. According to Vezér, the film will have international success, which is great news, since the film was shot amongst difficult circumstances. Pejo’s film, which was screened four times during the festival and once at the film fair, was a success both with filmmakers and audiences, and the interest was intense in the press event that followed the opening of the film.
The opening film of the 36th Hungarian Film Week will be screened in Sarajevo and Warsaw, but negotiations are already under way with the organizers of the Ljubjana film festival as well as American, Italian and French festivals. The coproduction, which deals with the subject of an ethnic minority, won the certificate of the CICAE international art cinema network, which may mean access to a number of art cinemas abroad. The German distributor of the film also reported of advanced negotiations. Dorka Gryllus, the protagonist of Dallas, was also invited to Berlin as part of the Shooting Stars program presenting young talent to receive the prize offered by Studio Hamburg.
In spite of the mixed reviews, according to the Film Union, Sorstalanság (Fateless) also had success at the first A-list festival of the year, and although an American agency is in charge of the distribution of Lajos Koltai’s film, the interest was also intense in the adaptation of Imre Kertész’s novel at the Hungarian pavilion in Berlin. In Italy, the film will have an Italian distributor, and German films will also screen it. Lost and Found, the sketch film made by eastern European directors screened at the Forum section also had favorable reviews. A 25-minute episode in the film was directed by Kornél Mundruczó.
At the Film Fair, where the Film Union rented a pavilion together with distributor Mokép, there was interest from both distributors and festival organizers in Nyócker (District 8), Csoda Krakkóban (Miracle in Krakow), Új Eldorádó (New Eldorado), Miskolci boniésklájd (Bonnie and Clyde from Miskolc), Temetetlen halott (The Unburied), and the Film Week award winner Fekete kefe (Black Brush) as well, but the Film Union will not divulge details until the negotiations are finished. The Hungarian program of the Cottbus Festival’s Focus on Hungary section is not public yet, either. However, Vezér said that next year the Hungarian pavilion might be larger, since the Film Fair will have a new location closer to the Coproduction Fair. For the latter, two Hungarian projects were selected, Benedek Fliegauf’s Tündérkör, produced by Inforg, and János Edelényi’s Prima, primavera, produced by Cinema Film.
Vezér said that the fact that this year already 12 Hungarians participated at the Talent Campus shows that there are lots of talented young filmmakers in Hungary, and their number is on the rise. This and the other results only reinforce the feeling that Hungarian film is on the rise and it’s worth paying attention to it. That is why the presence, the Hungarian pavilion is important. Hungarian film is well-known abroad, which is demonstrated by the fact that there are practically no international festivals where Hungarian films are not present, she said.
