Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

The 22-year-old Antal is a member of the hated political police. In October of 1956, during the revolution in Budapest, he escapes the wrath of the people by fleeing to the countryside house of his aunt, a Holocaust survivor. Aunt Sára tries her best to mother him and divert the attention of battered Antal with an old favorite song. When the Soviets launch an attack against Hungary on November 4, Antal is determined to join them in order to get his revenge. But Aunt Sára’s song keeps ringing in his ears, no matter how hard he tries to push it away. He has an unbearable earworm. When the time finally comes for vengeance, his earworm gets the better of him. The song becomes a macabre dance of death...

The film attempts to stimulate without dialogue and with not too exciting storyline, using only images, sounds, film-noir and usual horror elements.

58 seconds is the story of a lost swimming race. The tense moments of preparation and anticipation of the spectators are brought to life, and during the race we get a glimpse of the swimmer's hard training. After the defeat, the swimmer's emotions are unveiled, and the closing moments flash images of a new beginning.

Philosophical short film on the relativity of everyday situations: Zsuzsu gets into trouble because she accidentally pours water over her father from the balcony where she is watering plants. However, when the clowns in the circus start throwing water at each other, her father roars with laughter...

Gyuri Orosz' all-night wanderings through the mazes of health and life. While recounting the series of examinations, surgeries and consultations from the patient's point of view, he himself becomes a bit of a doctor, a healer, as laughter is a proven cure. The show is highly recommended for hypochondriacs!

National problems between the bride of Swabian origin and the bridegroom from Székelys of Bucovina burst out in the marriage, but the film also shows the possibility for reconciliation.

When two CCTV technicians find out about an AI machine threatening their jobs, they must get out of their chairs to beat the system – leading them to an unexpected solution.

T?ICK is the depiction of the relationship between man and woman, or if you like, separate but according to their function, connected principles. However, there is no philosophy or doctrine behind it, which could make it tangible. Thus, it doesn't operate in a complete system, but in one that can be continued. It tries to be a wake-up call to help everyone get rid of their daytime inhibitions and liberate their personal capacity for understanding.

Music video for Cavern of Anti-Matter's Liquid Gate, directed by Peter Strickland.

A macabre view of a corpse who suddenly sits up and spoils the ritual display of grief - but does he get by with it?

Vajk, a deaf teenager, controls his connection to the world through his hearing aid. His older brother drags him out of his comfort zone and takes him to a concert by a mysterious band. In the crowd, he loses control and gives himself over to the rhythm as he discovers his inner voice.

The two main locations of the film are Venice and New York - it is these two settings in which the protagonist, an astrologist, is slowly dying. He is a victim of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

A modernized version of the famous ballet work by Bela Bartok

In the story, Ivan Baracs seeks revenge by shaming his noble friends. He dresses his groom, Misha, in a tailscoat and introduces him into society as Count Tasziló. Mishka's fiancée, Marchesa, the dishwasher girl with the palms of her hands, becomes Countess Mary... The interesting thing about Mishka the Magician is that it is one of the rare pieces of operetta literature in which the dancer-comedian and the sub-radio play the leading roles.

A shocking story about the girls who participated in Miss Plastic Hungary, the first beauty pageant for women who have undergone plastic surgery.

Short Gusztáv cartoon.

Pre-school children tell by drawing and verbally what historical events we remember on the official holidays of the period of socialism.

A humorous career story in which an overlooked actor is unexpectedly asked to go from being the "eternal extra" to becoming the theatre's leading director. From there, he begins to fight not only for his own dreams, but for the company as a whole. Set in today's theatre world, this surreal satire reveals what the protagonist can do with a brand new assignment that is fraught with pitfalls, and what his colleagues think of him.

A rabbit tries to get a carrot lying on a water lily.

Three women, three lives in parallel worlds, until the moment a fly causes a bug in the system. The universe collapses, sex is in the air, bras are overrated and the stars twinkle.

1990. The regime change reached the small village of Borsod. The people are unemployed and get drunk in the pub day after day. Csornai, the former potentate, wants to be mayor, so he lobbies. Polyak, a sullen, philandering lathe operator in his mid-forties, lives with his mother. He has stolen his father's lathe, which he himself has worked on for decades since his beloved father's death, from the factory that was shut down. An American tourist arrives in the village with a metal detector and begins investigating the border. It turns out that his father's plane crashed nearby at the end of the war, and he wants to find it. The pub is immediately in an uproar and the investigation begins. They find the grave of the Americans, but not everyone is there. Csornai wants to make a big deal of it, so he starts investigating. But the story takes an interesting turn, and suddenly the American's cherished...

Vilmos Gonda, a former bomb expert, wants revenge for the rape of his daughter Mari at a house party. Gonda even sheds human blood for this, but he has no idea that his daughter is also responsible for what happened, and she does not want to press charges. In fact, she feels it is more important to assert herself in this kind of friendship at any cost...

The nipple is the power button that gets the ‘cinema of the mind’ rolling – or is it in fact a reality?

A lonely driver is accompanied by a mute hitchhiker.

In 2046, a young woman dates a handsome guy who has some weird plans with their hands.

A short animation from Flóra Anna Buda

Different tales about animals, including a cat - mouse fight, a big queue for dogs, and an ostrich's story with its egg.

Gitta, a young woman who used to be a famous primadonna before her marriage, abandons her husband and her son for the sake of the theatre and goes to Russia with an actor, Vándori. She performs in cabaret as a dancer and is very popular with Russian officers. A Russian colonel falls in love with her, and the debauched Vándori organizes a secret date for the colonel with Gitta. The colonel wants the woman to become his mistress, but she rejects him. Vándori is a gambler, first he gambles away Gitta’s jewellery, then Gitta as well. Years later, at the outbreak of WWI, Gitta leaves Russia with the help of the colonel. She returns home to find her family. She learns about her husband’s death and her son’s disappearance. She becomes a successful actress. A young man falls in love with her, but she recognizes him as her son.

1916. Austria-Hungary. When the former professional of Irish descent Jimmy Hogan encountered the self-taught street-footballer György Orth in the rapidly industrializing, multilingual and multicultural city of Budapest, a new chapter was opened in the history of the sport. The style of play embodied by what came to be known as the Danubian School revolutionized the game and marked the birth of modern football. All the same, the achievements of both men came at a high price.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Russians have started having dreams about their president and sharing them on social media. More than a thousand dreams about Putin have now been recorded and posted on public platforms. In Dreams About Putin, a selection of these dreams have been brought to life using Unreal Engine, a 3D graphics program for creating scenes for computer games. In this exciting experiment with form, the animations are complemented by rare archival footage of the Russian president. The dreams are related by a narrator, and their “translation” into 3D scenes is not literal; likewise, the archival footage has been lightly edited. The result is sometimes dryly comic, sometimes absurdist, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes even hopeful. A series of bizarre but therefore oddly familiar nightmares as a vision of Putin’s Russia.

An inspector from the office arrives at the small restaurant. The waitress and the chef are trying to figure out the inspector's strange behavior. Based on the short story Kitchen Secret by Ádám Bodor.

A grandchild visits his grandparents.

A barber goes for a walk on an average Sunday morning, and end up winning an other guy's wife on card.

Frigyes Karinthy's comedy, written in the 1920s, uses the farce of a genius inventor to expose the corrupt officials of the time, the unfaithful wife and the cheating doctor - and then, at the end of the play, another twist in which the actors playing the satire reveal themselves...

Erno Fisch, the film's protagonist, was born in 1903 in Sighet, the same small town as his world-famous compatriot, Elie Wiesel. Erno Fisch was the only Jew in his town that survived the Holocaust. He escaped deportation by hiding in the forest for six months. From his memories, we find out about everyday life in the area, which later became a part of Romania. Erno Fisch lived in an era when being Jewish did not mean being different, and when he could go to a Catholic school, just because it was closer. His life-story exemplifies the fact that resignation is not the only answer to the challenges of life and history.

The film highlights the beauty of craft, whilst re-contextualising traditional folk narratives to show the strength and power of the often forgotten members of folk communities.

Vienna, 1846. At night, the good-hearted coachman Hammer finds a young woman in labour at one of the gates and takes her to doctor Semmelweis at the women's clinic, whom he knows well. The woman is crazy with fear; mothers die there. Doctor Semmelweis finds no peace because of the surprisingly high number of death-cases at the clinic.

Based on the December Murder episode of Andor Fóti's The Underworld in the Trap; based on a true story: the cashier of a machine factory is stabbed and the leader of the night team is killed. A massive investigation is launched. Meanwhile, another worker is murdered in the factory.

A short film made to the music of Béla Bartók's famous ballet, Der wunderbare Mandarin (The Wonderful Mandarin).

The composer Berki András, in his co-tenancy noisy with the barking of dogs and the hullabaloo of children, is unable to compose the new song for his fiancée, the singer, although the premiere is near. He cannot believe his eyes as he sees the official decision that he will soon get an apartment on his own. Yet his joy is soon over. The pharmacist Ács Éva arrives with identical documents. The situation which evolves as a result of the new co-tenancy forces them to cover up things before their partners.

King becomes obliged to the Devil to give him his only daughter on her 15th birthday. When the day comes, Devil takes the Princess to hell, where she meets a young man called John. Together they decide to escape

Eight months pregnant, Lilla and her husband Peter's night is turned upside down when Peter's ex-wife, Hilda, calls: the heating has been turned off in their home and there is nowhere to go with their daughter to escape the winter cold. Although the situation is uncomfortable for everyone, they spend the night at Lilla's home.

After a video of a suicidal homeless man goes viral, a successful influencer hunts him down for an interview, blurring the line between digital activism and exploitation.

This animated film with hints of Monty Python satire and early 20th century burlesque has Earthlings land on Mars with the intention of bringing peace to the warring natives.