Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

Beautifully shot in black and white, this almost wordless film follows the last day in a man's life. A detailed, attentive, and contemplative study on self-loathing, loss of human dignity, and hopelessness.

Éva, the young, wild girl, the "wild rose", who was raised by her grandfather, Uncle Ábris, on the country estate, runs away from marriage to her father, the famous divorce lawyer Sándor Sziráky, in Budapest. In Budapest, Eva is welcomed by her kindly grandmother Clementine, who then becomes acquainted with her father's affairs with women. His secretary, Mária, is in love with Sziráky, but to make him jealous, she pretends to be his friend, Dr. Ámon. Mrs Tertayn, who is on the verge of divorce, is also vying for Sziráky. Éva springs into action, brings her father together with Maria after much complication, and finally finds happiness and peace of mind with Doctor Ámon.

Bene, tired of the professional battles of engineers and trying to escape a ship-wrecked marriage, asks to be transferred to the country. The gravest problem of the sandy region in Nagyalföld (Great Hungarian Plain) is the shortage of water. The tireless director of the local state farm asks for Bene's support, but the disillusioned man refuses him.

Arsene Lupin mystery

Az Aranyember (The Man of Gold) was based on a novel by Jokai, at one time Hungary's foremost storyteller. Set in the early 19th century, the story revolves around Timar (Ferenc Kiss), a ferryman on a Danish tugboat. Rescuing the daughter (Marisa Kormos) of a Turkish nobleman from a watery grave, Timar is rewarded with the girl's hand in marriage. Now rich beyond his wildest dreams, our hero finds he is unsatisfied; it seems he has never forgotten his true love, flower girl Noemi (Anna Fuzes). Timar is forced to suffer mightily until he is finally permitted a tender reunion with the girl of his dreams.

The Waffen SS is the elite Nazi fighting force that holds a dark place in Germany's history. Their code is a lethal combination of bravery and savagery.

Alex gets a well-paid job from his friend Zsolt: he must smuggle drugs from Germany. Alex wants to run away with the money to France, but suffering a car crash he loses his eyesight. One night, calling from a phone box in the street, he makes the acquaintance of a Hungarian woman living in a seaside town in Germany,

1991, farewell in Budapest. Mária remembers the past in tears. Her husband, Tibor, a chemist and a target of the KGB, left their apartment one evening to fetch some cigarettes only to be found drowned in the shallow Lake Balaton the following day. Their son, Peter, a student in Western-Europe, was found dead on the Danube embankment.

A man sleeping is haunted by surreal and everyday images: a grotesque dream-scape of the socialist countryside.

In World War I, two men who look almost identical fight in the same battalion at the front. One of them, Peter Benedek, a landowner, is killed, while István Pongrácz, a mechanical engineer, is hit while wearing Benedek's coat. The severe head injury causes temporary amnesia, and Pongrácz is mistakenly sent to the Benedek estate. Mrs. Benedek is pleased to see that her card-playing husband has become a solid, hard-working man after his wound. But Pongrácz begins to remember...

A young film student is about to make a documentary about an elderly man who has been hiding from the world for many years. But as secrets from his past come to light, their strange relationship takes a fateful turn.

Two young boys form an unlikely friendship during wartime, despite the opposing forces that surround them.

A focus on the tormented lives of intellectuals who failed to protest recent troubles in their homeland. Jancsó emphasizes highly evocative and ambiguous imagery over dialog or exposition as he – through visually fascinating imagery – depicts the painful, stunted lives of Hungary's intellectuals who have remained silent and ineffectual during various political crises.

Daring and dangerous, Attila Ambrus won the hearts of the Hungarian people when he became the country's most famous bank-robbing, hockey-playing heartthrob. In 1993, Ambrus robbed his first bank in Hungary and by the time he was first arrested in 1999, he had robbed 29 banks and stolen nearly US $1-million - remarkably, robbing one state bank four times!

A World War II-style "war game" setting the wealthy customers against skilled mercenaries goes awry when the simulated war gets too real.

In 18th-century Paris, Jerome Coignard, an abbé who enters a Parisian soup kitchen called the Queen of Goosefoot, takes on the owner's son, James the Impaler, as his apprentice in exchange for a good salary. The abbé, a doctor of theology and a master of the arts, is a man of great learning, adventurous and fond of physical pleasures, who humorously highlights the contradictions between common sense and Catholic beliefs. In the house of D'Astarac, a wealthy alchemist philosopher, he employs the abbot and his disciple to translate ancient Greek texts.

Is is June 27, 1989. It is after the reburial of Imre Nagy, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the opening of the Austrian-Hungarian border. János Kádár was removed from his position as General Secretary barely a month ago. However, the former state security apparatus has long sensed and recognized the approaching end; it begins to dismantle its own network of informants. The protagonist of our short film is a former informant (code name: Rhododendron), who is given a new identity by his case officer as a final gesture, offering him the hope of a new life. But a fatal bureaucratic error brings back memories of the past and forces the agent to make a decision that affects his integrity, his choice of freedom, his future, and changes his life once and for all.

To inherit the fortune he made in his previous life a man must become his previous incarnation again.

The film takes place in a present-day small Hungarian village in the middle of nowhere. Strangers hardly ever come to this place, everything outside of it seems to be in another world for the inhabitants. But one day everything changes, when a stranger from Budapest enters the pub. He is on his way to a vacation in Portugal and wants to spend some days in this village. He soon starts a love affair with the pub owner's daughter. The ex-policeman of the village doesn't like this at all...

When a young boy comes in to see a doctor abourt a red mark on his face, the doctor's wife welcomes him into the consulting room instead. As they talk, she offers him something to eat and then notes that his manner of eating is just like that of her previous husband, who died in prison many years earlier. It turns out that the young man had been his cell mate for a year, and he tells her the story of how her husband died. She then remembers (in flashbacks) how she had helped her first husband rid himself of his sexual repression, and how she had promised him she would marry her current husband if she were widowed. It seems her doctor-husband was a man who could remain untouched through any political climate, and was much admired by her first husband. Now that her memories have been awakened by the young man's account, she ignores the repeated phone calls of her current husband and decides to rid this young man of his own sexual repressions.

A love quadrangle story set in a luxurious setting, sometimes frivolous, sometimes bitter. The TV film gives us a glimpse into a seemingly distant world, while at the same time - unnoticed - confronting us with the emotional/emotional conflicts of our everyday lives.

A photographer is approached by a young model one night, and after he lets him in, a cat-and-mouse game begins. The idea calls the creator to account, the evening gradually descends into chaos, where words inflict literal wounds and crawling under someone's skin gets a whole new meaning.

A coming-of-age story set in the contemporary Hungarian countryside, where teenage soloist Dávid decides to stand up for Nóri, 13, a cellist in their youth orchestra who is having a suspiciously close relationship with their 60-year-old conductor. While looking for the truth, Dávid's life soon starts to spiral out of control as he faces tough decisions and the adult society's negligence.

Our story takes place in a small frontier town that is a real cross-section of the dreaded terror of the 1950s. On October 23, 1956, the ÁVÓ is throwing a ball for the birthday of the daughter of the local Russian commander. At this ball, the young people plan a clash with the local armed forces. The plan is foiled when the ball is interrupted by news of the outbreak of the Budapest revolution. By this time, Juli, the daughter of the local caretaker commander, and Robi, the son of an actor who has been deported from the capital, are in love. In this revolutionary situation, can the two opposing hearts of love be for each other?

Feri Noszty forges bills of exchange, which is an unforgivable sin in his circle. The family, to pay the debt and save the boy's honour, cash in their only fortune by marrying Vilma, Feri's sister, to a wealthy man. But this will not save Feri, who must resign his commission as an officer. He gets a job as a magistrate, but the income does not satisfy the young man's needs. All that is left is a good marriage and a huge dowry.

The 16th century Kecskemét troubled by both the Kurutses and the Labancs would like a Bey from the Buda pasha to defend them in exchange for four beautiful girls, but only gets a caftan. It was a good deal, however. All Muslims fall on their knees when they see the magic caftan and fulfil its owner's wish.

Sanyi (Szabolcs Thuróczy) is a puppeteer and an alcoholic. Pali (Tamás Polgár) is an elevator mechanic and an alcoholic. Together they search for their friend Tomi, who has already missed several AA meetings. They try to stay sober, which is not easy in a country where drinking is widely accepted as a daily practice. Sanyi's wife and daughter left him five years ago because of his addiction, and since then he has started a new life and stopped drinking, while Pali only needs a little push to drink again. Tomi probably doesn't even need that much. The two friends race against time on the streets of Budapest to find and rescue Tomi.

Fable about woodland creatures holding a competitive sporting event. However, when the wolf and fox kidnap the napping pig, everyone bands together to boil the kidnappers alive.

On the eve of World War II, Major Benedek Zoltán is an embodiment of the service regulations in the army. He only discloses his feelings towards Anna, his brother's widow. An investigation is conducted in the regiment to identify Communists.

A romantic drama in the Hungarian plain in the 19th century. A great love between the bandit and the poor girl, however the jealousy of Kitty the tavern keeper can destroy everything.

Hotel Sunrise is a busy place. Male guests are, almost without an exception, in love with Mária, the directress of the hotel.

In this absurd comedy two television reporters set out to find the famous gypsy Csulano.

Three people skilfully kidnap the company director, who never takes the responsibility, takes sleeping pills and spends his time feeding ornamental fish. The kidnappers turn out to be no other than the Engineer, the Technician and the Worker, who only wanted to avoid bankruptcy this way.

The heroes of the film are manual workers, members of a Socialist Brigade. Gyula, the brigade leader once has a dream where the gate-keeper searches through Lenin, about to leave the factory. He decides to stage Gelman's play, Premium, with his brigade, since the drama very effectively depicts what they see in the world around.

Kölyök, this lovely, ham-handed young woman, has caused many a trouble already in the Dunaújváros Iron Works. Fortunately, however, the manager does not want to give her up, what is more, Kölyök found a second father even at the police.

Nightmares submerge into reality and intertwine as we follow the everyday lives of ordinary people living in a parallel reality called The Quarantine Zone during the pandemic lockdown of 2020/21.

Pólika, tired of her husband Balázs Nyiri’s partying, moves in with her aunt. Nyiri, desperate to win her back, tries everything but fails. Aunt Zsani seeks help from her brother, Uncle Lajos. They sing Pólika’s songs at a pub, joined by the household. Aunt Zsani’s housekeeper, Pepi, serves them food, while servants share news of the Nyiri farm’s sale. Frustrated by the scandals, Pólika tells Nyiri to run away with her if he wants.

Tamás is a talented cartoonist, who, however, does not exhibit, but is forced by the police to work as a phantom painter. His talent solves some crimes. Now he is confronted to sketch a serial rapist.

George, Prince of Wales mingles with the crowd in Bowie Street in disguise under the pseudonym Bob. He falls in love with the poor Uncle Tom's daughter, Annie. But to save his business, the indebted Uncle Tom promised her to the usurer Plumpudding.

This grotesque, micro-realistic film is set in a small village at the end of the seventies. A TV-staff comes to the Petőfi Memorial House. They want to record the comic opera, The Postman of Longjumeau, by Charles Adam, a 19th century French composer.

The famous singer János Fehér has lost his voice forever. His secretary, Bokros, and his piano accompanist, Elisabeth, conceal the tragic truth from him. One day, during a car trip, János and his wife come across a miners' party where a young man, Peter, has the same voice as János. Hearing a perfectly similar voice gives John's friends a strange idea.

Well-known, unknown and forgotten faces from all over the ages are rolling by in some very short minutes.

Queen Guinevere sadly complains to her beloved handmaiden Peggy that her husband, King Arthur, has neglected her for years. The King spends all his time on the platform of the knight's tower or at the famous 'round table'. The women figure that only the good old wizard Merlin can help. Merlin sends Guinevere a powerful magic potion that will help her win back Arthur's love. The ladies bake the potion into a pudding, but it is accidentally eaten by Arthur's favorite knight, Lancelot. To complicate matters, Peggy is in love with Lancelot, but the knight's overdose of magic causes him to fall madly in love with the queen.

A feature length, lively - montage style - documentary, capturing the essence of what life was like in socialist Hungary - dubbed the "The most cheerful barrack" back then - using contemporary music, interviews, adverts and news footages.

In this naturalistic satire enriched with burlesque, Boróka, the haircutting artist once cuts a hair so, that the customer has to be shaved bald. Sajtár Dezső wants to kill the barber, who feels to be a victim himself immediately. In his anguish he mixes up his apartment, his wife and everything in the uniform world of the block of flats and like a maniac, tries to find after his pursuer. They find each other at a neurological clinic.

In communist Hungary a young mother wants to live with her son. To do so, she has to kidnap her own child from her influential, manipulative ex-husband and escape with him to the West.

A slow night at the gas station takes a drastic turn when a strange girl appears.

In 1947 Hungary, Dorottya is expelled from school for possessing Communist literature and joins a party cell to remain near her lover, only to fall for and marry the group’s leader. After the Communist takeover, her husband vanishes in a political purge, leaving her to suspect her former lover played a role in his disappearance. Now a disillusioned factory cleaner, she is forced to confront her past and face a bleak future alone under the rising Stalinist regime.