Discoveries from Hungary World Cinema

Short documentary

The 2025 Ozora movie is a poetic journey that begins with the instincts and spirit animals within us, moving through mindfulness to return to tribal connection. Guided by music and shared intention, we meet through playfulness and dance, reconnecting with ancient rituals and continue to weave the fabric of life together.

When I was a child, I often heard that “man can conquer nature.” Now I know that nature, as a whole, can never be conquered. Fortunately!

Young Hungarians are trying to make it in London.

Peter and Katalin go to the zoo and take their dog with them. However, a sign at the entrance indicates that dogs are not allowed...

A young woman is attacked by a self-appointed executioner who believes guilt must be punished - until both hunter and victim are revealed as part of the same cycle of judgement and death.

The film follows the first talent contest rap competition held at the juvenile prison in Tököl, from the preparations and rehearsals to the competition itself. How can a juvenile prisoner showcase their talent? Rap and hip-hop are popular in prisons around the world, and the subculture that has developed has its own hierarchy, sign system, and language; rap is the language of prison. How does that sound in Hungarian? The participants in the 2010 competition have all been released by now, and many of them have fulfilled their childhood dreams and plans. However, some have not been so lucky: Krisztián Nádasdi was murdered shortly after his release.

In today's culture war that is infiltrating almost every aspect of our lives, our view of the true face of the past is becoming increasingly blurred. Lately, Yasuke, the historical figure dubbed by some as the "African Samurai", has been caught in the crossfire of this struggle. He has become something of a historical folk hero in Japanese pop culture as a black samurai, an outsider from a distant land who has achieved fame and power. But who was he really?

The Inauguration of a Mechanical Bird in 2895, in New York City. The 4-minute burlesque motion picture with silent picture-style intertitles mocks the naively utopian world of the Victorian age. The film was inspired by the bitter satires of the elderly Jules Verne, in which a distorting mirror is held up to American civilization

Experimental short film.

The story of the Hungarian folk revival, which started in the 1970s, and its continuing legacy today. It was the only grassroots musical movement in the Eastern Bloc. Why did it happen, and how did rural peasant music become a significant movement in the city? And the surprisingly subversive role of folk music in regime change. History, politics and music featuring the leading characters of the Hungarian dance house scene, filmed in Budapest, Warsaw and Transylvanian villages and more feature in this eye-opening film.

The film consisting of countless original risograph prints, is an under-the-camera, straight-ahead animation improvised to the rhythm of the scores of the Hungarian percussion group, Amadinda. This animation, as a consistent conceptual work, avoids any sorts of post-digital manipulation.

This documentary takes an anthropological perspective to unveil the life of a family living in the grip of generational poverty within a settlement in Eastern Slovakia. The film explores the recurring cycle into which children like Amália are born, where their life prospects are predetermined by the circumstances. Despite the harsh conditions, the family strives to maintain their dignity and raise their children with love. Amália becomes the symbol of every child born into generational poverty.

A story about two girls, both living in their dreams, because they have no hope in their lives, their stories converge in a peculiar way.

Oneirology is the science of studying human dreams, researching the biological, neurological, and evolutionary mechanisms behind the creation of dreams, rather than interpreting their meaning.

In a weathered corner of Ostende's industrial zone, migrant workers gather for their daily cigarette break, where shared smoke and quiet conversations reveal the poetry in their hard-worn lives.

At the outskirts of a village in the Great Hungarian Plain, two communities live side-by-side as strangers: the workers of a high-tech factory and the inhabitants of the gypsy ghetto. This happens in spite of the fact that both of them deal with electricity. However, one community' s business needs constant supply of electric current while the other' s at least temporary power-cut.

A powerful message in the language of circus and dance.

Alice (30) is feeling sad. It’s been five years since her brother voluntarily disappeared in Tokyo. Living in a tiny Paris flat and working temporary gigs as a boom operator, she’s been unable to move forward with her life. One day, she buys a second-hand leather jacket and finds a mysterious note inside: “This is my sister’s keepsake. Memories of times and prayers. Please wear it. – Tsuyama.” Convinced it’s linked to her brother, she reaches out to an investigative Japanese TV-show and with their help she travels to Tokyo for answers.

Sociologist Ottilia Solt died on February 1, 1997: founder of SZETA, the Fund for the Support of the Poor, editor of Beszélő, founding member of the SZDSZ and member of parliament.

Rushing through time from the limited space of the tram, we are presented a metaphor of how we pass through our lives - only limitedly affected by the significant events that affect us.

The pigeon used to be a respected animal, today it's a pinochio of trash. Members of the urban world stepped away from the responsabilities of their domestication, leaving its faith to the city and its conditions (or the lack of them). What does that say about us? Here the rat of the air is just a pigeon.

Maria and her brother have different opinions on what happiness or philosophy are – but they are united when it comes to daydreaming. The film takes us to the intersection of a magical place between past and future, imagination and reality, memory and fiction, opening infinite possibilities for the two young characters.

In this raw and electric slice-of-life piece, the camera never blinks, following a trio drifting through the ghetto-turned-nightlife hub of Budapest. At the film’s core is a frustrated dishwasher and aspiring rapper whose rhymes serve as both release and protest - sharp bursts of rage against poverty, fractured relationships, and the pressure of class. The dialogue is fast, vulgar and painfully real, capturing an honest blend of cynicism and fragile hope. This isn’t stylized grit - it’s everyday struggle, laced with absurd moments and bitter humor.

A tiny bird restores the pianist's final hope by revealing the music hidden in everyday moments.

a Béla Vajda Cartoon

Short experimental animation about childhood, school and mathematics based on my exercise book in second grade.

A story of a lonely android stranded on a barren planet searching for a precious artifact. After crash landing on a freshly discovered planet, he decides to go further towards his original goal, what was a mysterious ancient object hidden in one of the volcanoes of the planet.

Portrait film about László Cseh, star of the film Archaic Torso, twenty years later.

In the endless darkness of night, a security guard quietly passes the time, trying to connect with anything that seems to be awake or alive.

Heni is a 36-year-old Hungarian woman in Barcelona. She’s always wanted a traditional, big family but, by her mid-thirties, even though she is successful, she is still single and lonely. She decides to have a baby and soon chooses Andrey to be her co-parent - a Russian, gay expat living in the same city. There are many challenges to come but their determination never fades. The film presents an intimate portrait of the new co-parents and their unusual family model.

A look into the perspectives of Hungary's post-1990 'new rich,' following the lives and motives of two busy entrepreneurs.