Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

A lonely 14-year-old girl finds a way to get in touch with the most famous superhero in the universe.

"Creative documentary" about the infamous hungarian politican, Tibor Szamuely, leader of the so-called "Red Terror" in 1919.

A young taxidermist is fascinated by ravens, paying considerate attention to their dead bodies. Her work on the birds is simultaneously a careful study of anatomical connections and a kind of service toward the resurrection of this mythical creature from the realm between life and death. Through detailed, pulsating black-and-white images and a sparingly intense soundtrack, a charged atmosphere unfolds between craftsmanship, imagination and poetry.

A five-episode cinema version of Chronicle(1982)

Documentary about Alfonz Medve, who was president of the Domaháza co-operative for eight years from 1963.

An expensive car arrives to a poor Hungarian village. The kids playing hide and seek in the streets are very attracted by the car. The driver let them try out the vehicle. When it’s full of children, they go for a longer ride.

A teenager wins a mathematical competition and as a prize for the winners of the contest, they have to spend a week in the fictional Hungarian village of Tótcsanád. He has extreme homesickness and as a result he plans to escape and go back to the capital city, Budapest. The plan looks impossible, but it seems like as if bigger forces would also want him to escape.

Bandit is fired from his job, gets into a fight with his mother and is even bugged by the lizardmen.

In the 1850s, according to a Transylvanian legend, a fearsome beast was rampaging in the Retyezat mountains, which was impossible to destroy because of its witchcraft. But Duke Schwarzenberg, the Habsburg governor of Transylvania, a fearless hunter who did not believe in this peasant superstition, decided to personally kill the monster.

Augusta falls in love with a strange picture of a man.

Showder Klub presents its all-night standup special series starring Sándor Badár. An improvisational comedian and character actor who, as a member of the comedy mafia in Szentes, is accused of constant joking around in a punchline organisation. His career has always been greatly influenced by his relationship with animals and travel from Bamako to Japan. Nowadays he speaks Badari professionally and does not complain. He resists foreign languages, even though he has already completed an Italian teleshop language school. In view of the international situation, he has not been left untouched by the confinement, like millions of our fellow human beings. But, as a Sentencer, he overcame this extraordinary situation by a clever move from the lowlands. How?

On her way back from a mission, Cassi gets stranded on a mysterious island. She meets an eccentric hermit and they set off to find her a new boat. The depths of the island force Cassi to reevaluate her quest, while the hermit must face something from his past.

Attila (16) spends all his free time with his elderly neighbor, Uncle Misi, and his wife, Aunt Juli. He can share everything with Uncle Misi, both joy and sorrow. Uncle Misi feels the same way about his friend, but when he wants to tell Attila something important, the boy has a more pressing matter on his plate: being in love.

Throughout history, Hungary's waters have changed almost beyond recognition. Our swamplands have been replaced by reservoirs and fish ponds, and our largest floodplain is now an arid lowland wilderness. Today, 75% of our lakes are artificial and 90% of our floodplains are gone. But wildlife has had to adapt to this changing world or face extinction. Surprisingly, our artificial lakes provide the last refuge for some rare aquatic ecosystems and our former floodplains provide temporary shelter for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds during the winter. But this world is no longer governed by nature, but by man. In this new nature documentary from the creators of the highly successful Where Rivers Run Wild: Aqua Hungarica, the man-made aquatic world is revealed in stunning new images. From the crane migration in the Hortobágy National Park to the hidden labyrinths of Lake Tisza, the winter marshes of the Hungarian Great Plains and the jellyfish hovering in crystal clear mine lakes.

An Orthodox rabbi deals with personal tragedies and an increasingly secular world.

Krisztián is currently unemployed, but busy. At night he wears a bat costume and walks the streets, pubs and nightclubs of Budapest. He faces drug abuse and violence, helps homeless people, troubled citizens, drunken youth and anyone who he can.

Szentjoby Tamas' short film shows Hungary in the 70's.

The impression of the work of philosopher Rudolf Arnheim, woven into a desktop collage, is based on a visit to Disneyland, an iconic cultural product reflected in Arnheim’s texts, photographs, and audio compositions, with a central consideration of the ways in which film distances itself from reality or the impression of realism.

The Puszta is a seemingly less diverse part of the Hungarian Alföld, but it's actually teeming with natural wonders. The treeless plain was developed from a forested plain, and it's one of the last in the Carpathian Basin. Some of its plant and animal species are considered European rarities.

In August 1940, the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy brought to an end a disagreement between Hungary and Romania related to their territorial dispute. Following the Vienna Arbitration, Transylvania was split into two territories, the northern part returning to "Homeland" Hungary for a short while. 75 years later, this film evokes the events of that period by weaving a series of personal memories.

A lonely castaway who is drowning at sea calls for help incessantly. No one helps him, because everyone is busy with their own affairs...

What happens to children whose parents forget to pick them up from school?

The once celebrated actress, Aunt Mici, refuses to go and spend her old days in the old actors' home. She lets her apartment, in exchange for being taken care of, to a young couple. Laci and Kati care for the old woman with loving tenderness. Suddenly, Mici's one time lover, Alfréd turns up.

Daddy Kárász, the stakhanovist worker, complains in a television interview about the fact that his family, consisting of many members, cannot get a home on their own. Kéri, the chairman of the local authority, promises to help him on the condition that if he does not, they may move in to his villa at elegant Pasarét. Nothing happens, therefore the Kárász family takes Kéri by his word. From this time on, tumultuous scenes and frequent quarrels take place in the villa between the two families.

Uncle Leo invites Peter, Katalin, and their dog to his ultra-modern campsite. His campsite in the forest is equipped with inventions that make outdoor life easier at the touch of a button. The children, however, prefer to enjoy nature in a more traditional way. They want to pitch a tent, eat snacks they brought from home, and light a fire in the evening.

Seven variations of the traditional fairy tales which the dragon kidnaps the royal - but this time, things are not happening as planned.

An excursion into the lost woods of childhood.

Pauza is a short film about the constant rush of everyday life and the exhausting rhythm of never-ending routine. It highlights how easily people can get lost in the pressure of always moving forward, always doing more, and never stopping. Through this theme, the film reminds us that sometimes we need to take a pause — a small break to breathe, reflect, and avoid drowning in the monotony of nonstop motion.

Zsóka, a Hungarian mother of two living in Berlin returns to Hungary for the summer vacation at their holiday home near Lake Balaton. During the holiday, she gets to know a woman and her two boys and a feeling keeps mounting in her: she suspects that the woman is emotionally and physically abusing the boys. Zsóka becomes increasingly oppressed by her own passivity and helplessness and the weight of responsibility that would come with concrete action.

A woman moves into a new home with her partner, but realizes that she needs to sort out not only her belongings, but also her inheritance.

Young Hungarians are trying to make in the Netherlands.

This is pure madness.

At the age of fifty, Rudolf Tóth, a former carpenter, decided to retire and leave his family in an attempt to escape capitalism. Thirteen years have passed since then. He settled in a ghost village in the Hungarian countryside. Without any companions and many resources, he set out to create a self-sustaining model farm.

Laci's life is entangled in anorexic routines and lies, but an unexpected encounter brings the true depths of his illness to the surface.

It’s dark and I’m cold. After feeling alone at the playground, the girl dropped into a party, only to feel even lonelier. Who do you have to dance-battle in this place to make life even slightly tolerable?!

The screen is a blank page, while the camera and other “weapons” in the filmmaking arsenal serve as a pencil. As night falls, the world shifts and flashes; along with a new day, people from the past arrive, and an equilibrist is about to cross the screen. Landscapes — distant and strange, intimate and endlessly reproduced — come to life, guided by the author’s intuition. But what will be the conclusion of this personal carousel of images?

The title character of this humorous puppet film is a milk pot that swells to terrifying dimensions. The vain jar-lady becomes so big-headed that she rejects her customary role in life and even goes as far as to take control of the master potter’s workshop. However, at the local market most customers give her the cold shoulder, only a drunkard rag and bone man sees something in her: as a bottomless wine jug…