Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

Based on Shirley Jackson's eerie short story The Summer People.

In the streets of Vichy, France, during World War II, the Germans apprehend nine men and a boy. Among them are a painter, a businessman, an electrician, a waiter, an army doctor, an actor, a prince, a gypsy, and a Jew. Confined without explanation, they can only speculate about their fate.

In Gerolstein, those girls who were born the same year as the princess, cannot marry until she remains maiden. An attractive and very rich husband is needed for Antónia in order to fill the treasures up. The wonderful reigning princess meets her selected bridegroom, the emperor of the neighbouring Pecunia in disguise and by accident.

A factory owner cheats on his wife and attempts to stamp out a revolt against poor working conditions.

After a 15-year absence, the famous actress' expatriate husband returns to Hungary to settle their divorce. The actress is rehearsing the role of a young boy back home when her husband walks in. Seeing the little boy, the husband thinks that Janika is his child, but the actress fails to inform him of the mistake.

What can a very shy and very poor student do if he happens to be in love with an unapproachable top model? Actually, nothing. But if he can earn his tuition as a dishwasher boy in a posh hotel, he can occasionally, even if from a distance, meet the woman he loves. Of course, if the adored woman even runs over her admirer in the hotel car park and carries him to her own apartment to avoid a scandal, anything is possible.

Goat is sent to a reform school in Satcha for 13 months. He has to fight his way up the adolescent hierarchy from the very first days. His peers force him to sneak out with them one night into town, where he is tied to a bench. There he meets the pretty Aggie, with whom he falls in love. After a disturbance at the institute, a new director is appointed, the ambitious and ambitious Lehota, whose militaristic approach transforms not only the institute but also the life of the town. Nothing can stop the escalating violence, or Lehota's career...

On a single night in downtown Budapest, shy Zoli strikes up a conversation with attractive Eszti after her date fails. Despite his awkward persistence - and the odd promise to show her his webbed toes - Eszti brings him home, where her brother Gábor, Zoli’s old friend whose late wife Zoli once cheated on him, storms in. As old betrayals come to light, the evening’s playful tension turns suddenly serious.

Kulinyi, the theatre secretary in Budapest, becomes the director of a rural theatre. He takes with him a talented, budding theatre couple, Gábor Bálint and Éva Pap. He fights a hopeless battle with drunken and jaded actors, undemanding audiences, and demands the release of their untalented relatives with creditors. Finally, tired of failure, all three return to Pest. Kulinyi resumes his post as secretary. Gábor Bálint, out of options, approaches the famous actor Ferenc Tőrös and asks him to let him play the role for one night only, so that he can prove his talent.

The ruin pub phenomenon in Budapest jolted the city to life like an explosion in the early 2000s. The capital, which had flourished and buzzed with culture at the turn of the century, was levelled in an instant by the Second World War. The people living here had to start from scratch, and through perseverance and determination, the city once again began to thrive—only to slide toward decline once more. Budapest exists within this cycle, and the ruin pub is part of it, encapsulating a sense of permanence built from the ruins of Eastern Europe.

The story is about Zoltán Frimont, who is a young French doctor of Hungarian origin. He is on a mission in Romania with his wife, who is also a doctor, when he collapses unexpectedly, and finds himself at a psychiatric institution in Transylvania.

Kata Juhász is the shrew in this updating of Shakespeare's play. Kata's wedding is scheduled but her groom deserts her over her whims. In order to prevent the guests from being disappointed, she hires a tramp from the banks of the Danube to play the role of the groom. The tramp, Chief Engineer Péter Szabó, doesn't bend to her caprices. This leads to confusion and resolution in the Shakespearian fashion.

Gábor, an ex-lord-lieutenant, now a widower lives a secluded life in his mansion. The commander in the house is Aunt Lili, a relative, whose main concern is to marry off the elder girl, the beautiful Mara

Through a series of surreal associations, we enter an apartment where an orgy is in progress: in a dark room, slides of naked women and apartment block panel towers are projected one after the other. Someone remembers that we should have ice cream: on the scraps of ice cream, lollipops and ice cream scattered on the carpet, Laca, with skates on her feet, starts an ice cream dance. Down the street, in a VW van, two Albert Einstein figures sucking on Leo's ice cream pick up the report on the Commission orgy and drive off to the Chinese border. But they don't count on the determination of the Commission fans...

Andras (Zygmunt Malanowicz), an older man employed as a furniture designer, gets a life-jarring shock when he returns from a trip and finds that some of the work he developed has been given over to a younger employee. This instigates a mid-life crisis over his own identity and his sense of security and self-worth, all exacerbated by a recent divorce and estrangement from his son. Recognizing that he needs help, the man goes for therapy and starts to face his problems. Therapy counteracts some of the damage of living, and the man starts to consider his son, his relationships with women, and his father in a different light.

1956. Three Hungarian friends hijack a plane to escape from the Iron Curtain.

Short animated Hungarian film. Based on works of Hungarian avant-garde artists: Wahorn András, fe Lugossy László, and ef Zámbó István.

Dani was always the good boy at school and is about to get married. He bumps into Tímea Hajnal, who is now a top model but is trying to get over a humiliating break-up. After a few glasses of wine, they fall into each other’s arms, which wouldn’t be so bad on the face of it, but there’s a tiny problem: Bögöcs, the bad boy of the class, has been recording everything on his mobile phone, and he’s thinking of using it to finally be able to fulfil his teenage dream - to sleep with Tímea. He threatens to show the video to Dani’s fiancée if he doesn’t take steps to set things up for him with Tímea. The pressure very quickly starts to have consequences for Dani’s relationship with his bride-to-be, as she starts to nag him chronically. The wedding is fast approaching, and Dani has to do something…

The war is over, but the Bodog family is starving. Varg's neighbor takes Mihai Bodog with him to do restoration work. They are well paid for this work and Mihai can finally please his wife Erji and their young son. When the workers are later hired to build a bridge, Bodog, a specialist bridge builder, cannot resist the challenge and is hired. But this time the workers are delayed in paying their wages, so their family is once again in need. Erji is forced to look for work...

The movie addresses the anti-fascist theme taken from a moral perspective. The movie tells the story of a group of teenagers who were drafted to the front in the last weeks of World War II and found refuge on a small island.

From its creation to its destruction, we follow a humanoid robot whose task is to take care of a Hungarian high-school. Every day is a new kind of torture in this weird, anti-comedic experimental short film.

Marianne, the daughter of Banker Turner, is a modern woman, driving her car - as well as through her life - with breathtaking speed.

János Arany was nineteen years old when he left the Reformed College in Debrecen and became a travelling actor. He is stubbornly silent about this period in his memoirs, and he is already over fifty by the time he first puts his acting adventure on paper in his unfinished poem novel, Foolish Gods, calling himself Istók.The film by Gábor Rohonyi and Georgina Hegedűs, starring Ágoston Liber, depicts the lesser-known but all the more adventurous early years of one of the most important figures in Hungarian literature, mixing the story of his growing up with romantic elements and the road movie genre.

The fresh president of Hungary find himself in trouble with taxi drivers. The taxi drives are disappointed in the democracy and protesting against the drasticly raising gas prices. The drivers build blockades all over the capital.

Csepel, 1945. The Csűrös family, in addition to their three children, give accommodation to the orphaned Jóska, although they themselves struggle with difficult circumstances. The boy lends a helping hand in the factory during the days.

At Christmas Eve in 1944 the runaway Pintér and Gozsó get through the Soviet blockade around Budapest. Pintér intends to hide in a flat abandoned by his own relatives, but he finds his relatives called the Turnovszkys, who are hiding the Jewish Jutka as well. Love unfolds between Zoltán and Jutka.

On a psychedelic night, the protagonist speaks endlessly to his friends, friends we never hear. Beneath his loud, crude monologue, a different figure slowly emerges, someone who uses every word to push the world away. The film becomes an intimate journey into a mind that builds its own walls, only to lose itself within them.

When high-school literature teacher Ana Bauch innocently recommends a film to her students, a parent's complaint spirals her life into chaos.

Gizella Weisz is an middle-aged office worker, who gets a promotion one day. Her boss told her that a new outpost is waiting for her. There she would be heading a new section. She travels from place to another and finally arrives at her new outpost. It is a remote shed, where a half-insane co-worker is waiting for her. It is obvious that Weisz has not been promoted, but punished. However Weisz does not realize that herself. Without questioning she just accepts her promotion.

Áron stands in his life as an average 29-year-old weirdo. He has many contemporary complexes, a fresh university degree, and a recent break up. His parents have to support him financially as he is still a job seeker and while Áron is agonizing on his lost love, he is always interrupted by something; it seems like he’s not the main character in his life.

In the documentary about Olivér Halassy, the outstanding sports career of the legendary swimmer and water polo player is shown, and with the assistance of Olympic and Paralympic champions we also gain insight into the world of domestic water sports in the 20th and 21st century.

A documentary about the final years of legendary Hungarian guitarist, Tamás Barta.

The archduke's grandfather wants to thwart the love between Princess Erzsébet and András Balogh, a young man of lower rank. He sends Erzsébet to Switzerland and András Balogh to Warsaw as an embassy secretary. However, Erzsébet follows András to Warsaw, where they both become embroiled in criminal complications when András has to return home with important diplomatic documents. Back home, it turns out that everything happened so that Erzsébet could soften the archduke's grandfather's heart and rescue András from the predicament he got himself into for Erzsébet's sake... The film is set in Warsaw, and the exterior shots were taken just before the outbreak of World War II, so the film still shows Warsaw intact.

The story is set in the present day. László Sziráki, a womanizer and chemistry professor, is searching for the secret of making gold, but one component is missing. He wants fame and a solution to his financial problems. When he meets Esthena, an eccentric philosopher who wants to lose her virginity, he succeeds in turning plastic into gold. But he, a shrewish and shrewd man, does not recognise the exceptional nature of this encounter and pushes her away. Sophika, the wise grandmother of Syracuse, also meets Esthena: she sees her as a kindred spirit and assigns her to her grandson. But in the meantime, Mr. Maci, Esthéna's bumfordian and buffalo-loving gladiator knight, who will do anything for the girl, begins to pursue the alchemist out of jealousy. Will Syracuse find the answer to the alchemist's question? And is making gold even important?

Vincent, a reckless French boy, travels to Hungary to liquidate the home of a relative he has never seen. In an apartment cluttered with dusty objects and furniture, he is confronted not only with the past of others, but also with his own present.

A drug dealer spends his day pedaling around Budapest visiting friends and clients.

Girl, mother, lover - all in the body of a teenager. Maja has to face the responsibility of early motherhood. Being a child herself she can't stand the pressure. Running away from her beloved baby turns out to be her first mature decision.

This is the story of present-day Hungary's most famous gay celebrity who openly admits his homosexuality and fights for gay rights in a society where so many alternative values are denied. But then something happens and he is shocked to discover his growing interest in the female of the species.

From the music of Hungarian composer Mihály Vig , Georgian filmmaker Koberidze, Alexandre crafts a story of pixelated dogs on a ledge. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

What can you expect from a 30-year-old man? Have a good job, car, house, wife, kids. And how is András doing on his 30th birthday? He's an excellent saxophonist and he has a brain, but no money, no wife, no car. In fact, he has never made love to two women at the same time in his life. He decides to make up for it in one day. By the time the candles on his birthday cake are lit at home in the evening, he wants to be done with all the things he should be. With precise plans, he sets off on his big adventure in the morning. The girl for a wife Andrew meets is a real mystery: she plays with men, lies a lot, cheats even more, and sometimes steals a little. No order, but her smile is irresistible...

A gentle meditative touch on the relationship between mother and daughter in a hospice centre. At this stage of their relationship, they both realize the importance of giving each other freedom. The act of letting go of each other is opening infinite space of love and appreciation - the little things they can do together.

Her husband, a talented engineer, having been killed in an accident years ago in America, Mrs. Gáldy, a widower, lives in poverty in a small village with Tomi, her little son.

The cartoon version of Albert Gyergyai's beautiful story about a prince named Árgilus and a fairy maiden, História, presents a struggling human life path. The youngest of the king's three sons, Árgyélus, fights the most determinedly. Despite all the difficulties and setbacks, he does not give up on finding his love, the beautiful fairy maiden. This is how his life ends, he turns gray, and grows tired of the trials. However, the happiness he finally finds restores his strength and youth.

Early Hungarian feature from Michael Curtiz

Divided into two different halves separated by mood and subject matter, this is an uneven drama about the experience of one Hungarian Jew before and during the fascist takeover of Budapest. The hero Pali (Zoltan Bezeredi) arrives back in Budapest from the U.S. and meanders among the intellectual and social elite before he leaves for a brief stay in England. There he has an even briefer affair with a happy-go-lucky aspiring actress (Anna Kubik), and after a few other encounters with movie mavens, he heads back to Budapest -- quite inexplicably. The rest of the film deteriorates into a dark realm of hatred and violence.

The crew of kontroll.hu traveled to Transcarpathia, Ukraine, to film among orphaned children in Munkács and lonely elders in Tiszakeresztúr. The documentary follows a single day in the life of Reverend József Sipos, a Reformed pastor whose calling extends far beyond the pulpit. From abandoned hospital wards to remote village homes, he brings words of comfort, food, and aid to those left behind in the shadow of the Russian–Ukrainian war. Just a mile and a half from the Hungarian border—a mile and a half from peace—the film reveals the stark reality of life lived on the very edge of hope.

Avary, himself a hustler, is jealous of his beautiful wife. He eavesdrops to catch Vilma, his wife, having supper with a neighbour on the terrace of their manor-house. He is about to shoot at the woman, but it is him who gets shot to death.

1979. Gábor H. works in a law enforcement institution. He robs a bank branch, gets into jail. 1989. Gábor H. and the similarly unemployed Sanyi want to get money by robbing.

A TV film version of Shakespeare's drama.

Juli's mother is a strict religious person and she's forcing Juli to practice and follow her religious beliefs. The question is if here is an opportunity to break out from the world of this strict religion.

Eight-year-old Tilda’s memories of her family as surrealistic visions come into life: the circus member ex-mermaid grandmother, the erotically overheated mother and the disappeared father whose broken heart, anger and jealousy manifest as a rhino. Tilda’s life is full of grotesque, bizarre characters hungry for love.

A mysterious radio message is beamed around the world, and among the engineers who receive it are Los, the hero, and his colleague Spiridonov. Los is an individualist dreamer. Aelita is the daughter of Tuskub, the ruler of a totalitarian state on Mars in which the working class are put into cold storage when they are not needed. With a telescope, Aelita is able to watch Los. As if by telepathy, Los obsesses about being watched by her.

A wife gets a call from a state adoption agent on her way home. They have been selected to adopt a child with her husband. When she goes into their home to tell the news to her husband she finds him in the bathroom.

1859. Exploiting the Austrian-French-Italian conflict, Kossuth sends Batiszy Kristóf back from the emigration to organize the Hungarian Legion. Batiszy's company gets into trouble, Austrians are waiting for them, Hungarian authorities chase them, people stand still. Demolition of the troop is the task of Görgényi László chief district administrator, who used to be an officer in the revolution once.