Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.

A war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown.

In the heart of a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany stands a majestic ginkgo tree. This silent witness has observed over a century the quiet rhythms of transformation across three human lives. At three distinct moments across the 20th and 21st centuries, these people — each carrying their own questions and inner struggles — inevitably find themselves drawn into the presence of this tree, full of mystery and meaning.

Rita, an ordinary, but lonely woman is kidnapped. Her captors are the Árpáds; they claim she is not called Rita but Szilvi, a runaway from their family. Rita eventually understands that the only way out is in - to escape she must impersonate Szilvi. The more she becomes the lost girl the more she finds out about the family - and understands that her life is on the line.

In the dark heart of a sprawling, anonymous city, two assassins carry out a sinister mission, a teacher battles a fatal illness, and an enigmatic janitor and a curious waitress lead dangerous double lives. Murderous consequences unravel in the dead of night, as their lives intertwine at the hands of a mysterious criminal mastermind who is hell-bent on revenge.

A woman's consuming love forces her to bear the clone of her dead beloved. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision.

Rachel Singer is a former Mossad agent who tried to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal – the Surgeon of Birkenau – in a secret Israeli mission that ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the doctor has surfaced, and Rachel must return to Eastern Europe to uncover the truth. Overwhelmed by haunting memories of her younger self and her two fellow agents, the still-celebrated heroine must relive the trauma of those events and confront the debt she has incurred.

Asterix crosses the channel to help second-cousin Anticlimax face down Julius Caesar and invading Romans.

A film where anything can happen - the hero and the heroine changes their faces, age, look, names, and so on. The only same thing: The love between man and woman... in an archetypical love story cut from 500 classics from all around the world.

When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Escaping from a chicken farm, a hen finds refuge in the courtyard of a crumbling restaurant. There, she discovers love, confronts the pecking order, and fights to protect her eggs from a greedy owner. Her droll yet touching quest for motherhood mirrors the messy compromises and silent struggles of human lives.

Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.

Jozsó and Csőri are friends, but after a fun - and very fateful - night, their lives are turned upside down, as they are supposed to take on a role that tests and shapes people for which they have no suitable role model. Only the lack. The lack of parental love. The question is whether they will take responsibility for the consequences of their decisions, whether they will be able to cope with the lessons they have received from their parents for life, and whether they even want a new life together?

In 1920s Vienna, a young girl receives a magical doll on Christmas Eve.

After a long rehabilitation, Laura returns to her family at their beach holiday home where she has to readjust to the complicated life she left behind. Now she is forced to face the following next chapter of her life without the career that gave her fame, fortune and, most importantly, identity.

In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival trying to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son, seeking to give him a proper Jewish burial.

A look at the monotonous daily struggle of a father and daughter in a windswept, desolate landscape. Over six days, their routine of eating boiled potatoes and tending a failing horse crumbles, symbolizing a slow descent into darkness, emptiness, and the end of existence.

A graveyard rendezvous that isn’t just about love, but about fulfilling a promise – and facing its consequences. A family weekend that digs up buried secrets – secrets that perhaps should have stayed underground forever. A legendary VHS tape, worth killing for – or maybe someone already has. And a childhood tale that proves, years later: sometimes the scariest things are the ones we believed were true as kids. From Horrorszkóp and Cruel World Team comes four dark and unsettling stories in this chilling horror anthology. Each one steeped in the shadow of death, human weakness, and the grim truth that the ending is never what you expect. Four stories. Four secrets. Four inevitable ends.

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

Follows the birth of a political and social movement from the inside, with Péter Magyar as its face. For more than a year, the filmmakers accompanied him on country tours, campaign sites, and background conversations, as well as being present in those quiet, intimate moments – many times in his own home – that have remained hidden from the public until now.

Two introverted people find out by pure chance that they share the same dream every night. They are puzzled, incredulous, a bit frightened. As they hesitantly accept this strange coincidence, they try to recreate in broad daylight what happens in their dream.

Eszter is a successful actress who unexpectedly suffers an accident and suffers amnesia. It turns out that reality has been mixed up in her head: she believes that she lives in the nineties, is a hairdresser and is searching for the One.

A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.

The story is about the Princess Irene and a young warrior boy named Curty. Irene must use her magic power to fight off goblins and save the kingdom.

After the Hungarian army was annihilated by the Mongols at the battle of Mohi, only the castle of Esztergom stood in the Mongolians' way of invading the rest of Europe. Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, reaches the walls of Esztergom with his invincible troops. The castle's defenders, led by Eusebius, the canon of Esztergom, and a Spanish mercenary, Captain Simon, are preparing for the final battle. The sudden arrival of Cardinal Cesareani, the Papal Legate, coinciding with the Mongol Lunar New Year celebrations and the mystical practices of Eusebius, combine to offer the defenders a small glimmer of hope.

In the late 17th century, Hungary moved from Turkish to Austrian domination, becoming a key part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this story, which takes place shortly after that time, three outlaws murder a group of people on their way to a wedding. One young man was a slave travelling with the group to entertain them with his skills as a trumpeter. The outlaws spare him for the same reason. He allows himself to believe that they are really an unattached group of independence-fighters, but after seeing their brutal and callous ways, he cannot believe that they are good men, and he turns them in to the authorities. At that point, he is unnerved to discover how nobly they bear the rigors of captivity. ~

A subway enforcement officer working in the oppressively gray Budapest metro gets a chance at love — but first he needs to find out why passengers are jumping — or being pushed — to their deaths onto the tracks.

A young refugee, Aryan, is shot while illegally trying to cross the Hungarian border. While tending him back to health, a doctor at a refugee camp discovers that Aryan has gained an extraordinary talent—he can levitate. Aryan is smuggled out by the doctor, who is intent on exploiting his secret.

In a hidden lot behind Pest’s tenements, loner Légiós has carved out a private refuge in his trailer and will do anything to keep the outside chaos at bay. When wealthy businessman Imre rolls up in his 1968 Ford Mustang seeking a secure spot, the two men launch a fierce duel, each escalating tactics to outwit the other and claim the coveted, corrugated-roof parking space.

Alice is 27 years old today. Even though she is suffocating a bit, she still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life. After a psychedelic party on a factory roof, she has a serious drunken bike accident. Will this give her the courage to become an adult?

Tutajos is an excellent student whose parents decide to reward his academic achievements with a vacation to the countryside. Robbed of his gadgets and easy city-lifestyle, Tutajos finds himself completely out of his element – until a goodhearted ranger named Matula teaches him how to get back to nature. As Tutajos’ best friend Bütyök joins him on his vacation, the two boys learn the joys of camping, hunting, and living off of the land.

The film is a historic parable about the topicality of revolution. 1514. The peasants' uprising is over, Dózsa has been arrested. Werbőczy tries to get the imprisoned peasant leader deny the revolution and offers him the lives of his people in exchange.

In 1913, an orphaned young woman arrives in Budapest to take up employment as a milliner at the hat store that belonged to her late parents but becomes mired in a search for a brother she had never known of.

Laci Ács the two-time Olympic champion boxer suffers his first defeat on an international tour that his coach was heavily against. After a tough period he starts working hard to get back into the ring, win back the coach's trust and win his third gold at the Olympics. Starring real three-time Olympic gold medalist boxing legend László Papp.

A post mortem photographer and a little girl confront ghosts in a haunted village after the First World War.

A horse goddess gives birth to three powerful brothers who set out into the Underworld to save three princesses from three evil dragons and reclaim their ancestors' lost kingdom.

Follow the perilous journey to freedom when a young boy and his dog attempt to escape a concentration camp during World War II. Based on true events.

An adoption, an insemination, an abortion. Three women in three European cities struggle through a day, making one of the hardest decisions in their lives. An up-to-date observation of women’s choices on the verge of motherhood.

Dorottya is a young Hungarian actress with a burning desire: to make it on the English stage. Legendary actor, Sir Michael Gifford suffers from an incurable disease, and has one desire: be left alone. When Dorottya becomes his carer they both hope their wish will be fulfilled.

13 year old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen, and is devastated when her father sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to save her dog. Failing in his desperate efforts to find his beloved owner, Hagen joins a canine revolt leading a revolution against their human abusers.

In Budapest, two rival gangs of young boys lay claim to a vacant lot. The hostilities escalate yet never quite boil over into actual violence.

Lilla, a forty-something couples therapist devoted to her family, is blindsided when her husband suddenly leaves her for a younger nail technician. Struggling with heartbreak, Lilla finds herself being pushed by her headstrong daughter, Zsófi, and her no-nonsense mother, Vilma, to snap out of her depression and start dating again. In a bid to lift her spirits, Vilma introduces Lilla to a charming journalist — but things take an unexpected turn when Zsófi discovers a potential match of her own for her mother.

Psychotherapist Ruben Brandt becomes the most wanted criminal in the world when he and four of his patients steal paintings from the world's most renowned museums and art collections.

Emma and Eddie live two lives: one on social media and one in real life. The webcam couple is out to save their marriage by starting their own adult web-studio in Eastern Europe.

A messed-up astronaut runs from the deadly black fog that slowly covers everything. He seems to have only a short memory but he needs to find a way out. We repeatedly follow him through different strange scenes where he seems to meet the same people on an on again, but each time they are different and the stories they tell seem to differ as well. The film focuses on a universal problem solving situation rather than on classic linear storytelling.

In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.

This romantic and grandiose historical film depicts the era of the constant incursions and heroic battles fought by the defenders of the castle of Eger, led by captain István Dobó, against the heavy odds of superior numbers through the lives and love of Bornemissza Gergely and Cecey Éva. Gergely is inaugurated as a fighter already at the age of 7, when he escapes the captivity of the half-eyed Turk, Jumurdzsak, with Vica and the war-booty. In thirty years' time he becomes the first assistant of captain Dobó and the brain of the castle in the defence of Eger.

A young woman struggles with her aching wisdom tooth and the challenges of adulthood. Her inner struggles come to life in a surreal amusement park where she unexpectedly stumbles one day. This inner journey shakes her out of her daily anxiety and helps her embark on a journey towards more conscious self-care.

A young Roma boy is lifted into the light, only to find it fades in an unexpected way.

A pair of inept detectives dream of a more thrilling caseload. Then a dead body turns up and they are accused of murder and pulled into a world of mayhem, torture-and laughs.

Between 1993 and 1999, one man robbed 29 financial institutions in Budapest. Banks, post offices and even travel agencies fell victim to his crime spree. The police had no leads and no hope of finding him during his six-year stint. The only clue left behind at the crime scenes was the distinct aroma of whiskey. The media christened him the “Whiskey Bandit”. Never physically harming anyone, many began to eagerly follow his escapades through the media. A Transylvanian immigrant, who also happened to be a goalie for one of the city's largest hockey teams, named Attila Ambrus, was finally identified as the “Whiskey Bandit”. The police had finally captured him... or so they thought.

A psychotic mastermind holds a group of interconnected strangers captive in a manipulative game with deadly consequences. Young and old, sinners and saints — everyone's guilty of something, but no one wants to pay the price.

A priest arrives in a village and give advice and comfort to different people. He meets a wheelchair-bound former representative of the Communist party, a woman who is dying of tuberculosis and an astronomer who sings in a punk band.

A tale of torn loyalty and love between SS officer Nikolaus Fuhrich and his first love, Jewish violinist Elisabeth Soloviechik. From two befriended Austrian families, one Jewish, one "Germanic," the fates of these two young characters intersect and intertwine prior to the First and after the Second World War.

A sea captain makes a bet in a cafe with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks in.

Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel, of his role in Hitler's plan for the final solution.

In 1957 Budapest, one year following the failure of the Hungarian Revolution, a 12-year-old Jewish boy whose mother has raised him to believe that his father will return from the camps has his hopes shattered when a brutish stranger appears on the doorstep to take his family back.

In an effort to end family feuding, a young gypsy travels back in time to kill mammoths to ensure Hungary becomes rich by killing mammoths in order to create a massive oil reservoir. Things don't go entirely according to plan...

This Hungarian film chronicles the slow deterioration in the life of Juli, a farmer's wife. As the countryside grows ever more deserted because people are moving to towns or large collective farms, she spends more and more time alone. Despite her best efforts to appreciate her situation, her despair grows. The loneliness is briefly interrupted when she and her husband take in an old woman and care for her, but the woman dies. Shortly after her son visits, she is killed in an accident which may have been a suicide. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi