FESTIVAL DIRECTORS
Steve Kovacs
Eva Homor eva.homor@galaxismedia.com
Reka Pigniczky reka@56films.com
SYNOPSIS
I moved to a new house. Under me busy streets meet, squeezing a piece of ground against the wall of the house – The Square.
Countrary to the will of the city, the district decided to build a memorial over soldiers, civilians and Jews alike, who die din the II WW.
The memorial was designed int he shape of the “Turul” bird, a mythical creature int he Hungarian mythology with a symbolic value that still today causes heated debate.
On a territory the size of a handkerchief the film gives a picture of the tensions in today’s Hungary.
DIRECTOR’S COMMENT
I moved to the top floor of an apartment house facing a small forgotten square long before the place became a stage for Hungarian political life. There is a great view from my window to the square and politics just happened to enter through my window.
In 2005 the mayor of district XII of Budapest decided to build a World War II memorial in the square. The memorial was designed in the shape of a bird, a Turul bird in the honor of the district regardless of their race sex or nationality. The leadership of the capital did not agree. The Turul bird is a mythical creature understood by some as the symbol of Hungarian identity but to others it brings back memories from the 1920s when the “Turul Alliance” initiated the exclusion of Jews from higher education.
The city leadership feared that the monument would become stage for neo-Nazi demonstrations.
Despite repeated prohibition by the lord mayor the district mayor did set up and inaugurate the Turul monument in the square.
A public outcry and demonstrations from those opposing the statue followed, only to be answered by counterdemonstrations by the supporters who claimed that the “leftist” objections were degrading the ancient symbol and therefore wounding “the Hungarian pride”.
My square had become a stage of Hungarian political life. But the square has also a private life as it always had – it is living with us and tells us stories about ourselves. It may sound strange but from my window I could also follow touching stories of human life. The view from my window allowed me to follow tensions and conflicts but also appearance of love in today’s Hungary.
Festivals:
2014 – Cracow Film Festival (in competition)Director: Lívia Gyarmathy
FC Barcelona are the world’s most successful and popular football club.
The motto of Barca „More than a club.” is certainly true, it is a woldwide brand with tens of millions of fans. Few know though that the successes of today were established in a past in which brilliant Hungarian players played an eminent role. The documentary tells the story of the Hungarian heroes of Barcelona the „goalmaker” Kubala, „ragdoll legged” Czibor, „The Golden Head” Kocsis and the almost forgotten Berkessy and Plattkó.
The film first presents the founding decades of FC Barcelona’s century long history. Ferenc Plattkó was the goalkeeper of the Catalan club between 1923-1930, and was also a Hungarian fans favourite before he emigrated. László Kubala joined the club after epic adventures in 1950 and became Barcelona’s brightest star. 1956 has changed the history of Hungarian football forever. Several legends of the Golden Team emigrated. Whereas Puskás joined Ral Madrid, the leftback Zoltán Czibor and the striker Sándor Kocsis signed for Barcelona. The „ragdoll legged” Czibor nicknamed „the crazy bird” in Spain became a favourite of the Spanish, while the restrained, elegant Kocsis became known as the „The Golden Head” all over Catalonia within a few weeks due to his legendary headers.
Watching the documentary viewers are not going to be surprised anymore learning that a poem about a Hungarian goalkeeper is part of the Spanish curriculum and that a two metre bronze statue of a Hungarian player faces those entering Europe’s biggest stadium.
What do you do when you find you’re not the man you thought you were?
This is the story of 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. Coming Out is a daring romantic comedy that examines the question of otherness in a unique way.
The film presents us a contemporary Hungarian artist, Imre Bukta, whose work is exhibited in contemporary art galleries throughout Europe, and who lives in a Hungarian village that is on the verge of total decline. Living in this village is not only a personal choice but also an artistic and civil responsibility for this person who takes inspiration from – and in fact carves his art from – the reality and habitat around him. In the style of a free cinematographic essay Dénes Nagy brings to light unknown territories of Europe and the lives of people who inhabit these areas. Delicately interweaving landscapes and portraits, silence and sounds, this poetic documentary captures the inner spirit of another Hungary.
Festivals:
6th “Ördögkatlan” Cultural Festival – Kisharsány, Hungary, 2013
10th Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary, 2013- Hungarian Panorama program
43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2014 – My Own Private Europe program
“Best Documentary of 2013” Prize awarded by the Hungarian Film Critics` Association
11th Festival du Cinema de Brive, France, 2014 – in official selection
24th Mediawave International Film Festival, Komárom, Hungary, 2014 – `Best Hungarian Documentary Film`
BuDoku – Documentary Film Festival of Budapest, Hungary, 2014 – `Grand Prize` awarded by the International Jury
European Film Festival Palic, Serbia, 2014 – New Hungarian Film program
In the hectic summer of 1989 Hungary opened up its western border, which started a new migration in the upheaval of Eastern Europe. Refugees of politics, proverty and war all passed through Hungary, the crossroads of East and West, adventure seekers, smugglers, mafiosos and a few young people who were looking for a new place in a world that seemed to be renewed. They are the heroes of this story. They arrive from various directions: two moony musicains and an egineer from Russia, two girls from Britain and America. They all meet in Budapest, in a rock-pub called Bolshe Vita. They fall in love and wander around town, the boys trying to make living by playing music in the street or doing business in the “COMECOM” market.They all spend the summer together in the short interval between the collapse of the dictatorships and the dawn of the new chaos – that was the time we called freedom.
Prizes:
1997 – Angers Premiers Plans
Main Prize
1996 – Berlin PRIX EUROPA
European Parliament’s Special Prize
1996 – Budapest Hungarian Film Week
Best First Film
Gene Moskovitz Prize
1996 – Cottbus FilmFestival
Main Prize
International Film Club Association Prize
1996 – Lagów International Film Festival
Golden Grapes Prize
1996 – London Film Festival
Satyajit Ray Award
1996 – Sochi International Film Festival
Grand Pearl Prize
FIPRESCI Prize
On August 16, 1958 two Hungarian immigrants break into the Hungarian embassy in Bern and take the ambassador hostage. As the Swiss police surrounds the building and a group of Hungarian immigrants shows up on the street to demonstrate, a tense, twist-filled hostage drama plays out behind the closed doors of the embassy. Based on a true story.
Death does not select, man does. – Set in Budapest, Heavenly Shift offers an eerie insight into the everyday lives of a rather extraordinary ambulance crew.
The film’s main character is Milan, a young refugee from the Balkan War, who joins a team of paramedics but inadvertently ends up involved in the funeral business in order to finance his fiancée’s rescue from the hostilities.
MILÁN (András Ötvös) the half Serbian, half Hungarian guy deserts from the Croatian army in 1992, the second year of the Yugoslav war and escapes from Yugoslavia to Hungary. As a former medical student he gets a job for himself at the Hungarian paramedics. He has two unalterable, steady collegues on the emergency ambulance: KISTAMÁS (Tamás Keresztes), the driver of the ambulance and DOCTOR FÉK (Roland Rába), the chief of the paramedic crew. It is a cold shower for the young enthusiastic and conscientious EMS assistant when he realizes that his companions make a selection from the patients. While they are saving lives, sometimes they allow old people or mortally ill to die, or indeed it occurs that their death is hurried by them. MILÁN soon finds out that there is a business side to the illegal euthanasy events taken place at the back of their ambulance. In order to finance his fiancée’s rescue from the war, MILÁN needs money, so he makes a deal with his companions. He gradually becomes involved in the horrors and sin. While he is turning into a skilled paramedic, and lives through the euphoric moments of lifesaving, he recognises innumerable faces of Death.
An aging DJ living the high life with his dad’s money loses big one night in an undeground casino club. With his options running out, he convinces his best friend in an asylum to assemble a group of misfits for an armored car robbery. The easy heist has consequences that none of them even dared to expect.
IF COUCHES COULD TALK
-sketch film-
In everyday life, there are couches all around. Since the Roman Empire it became such a natural piece of every space, man has created, nowadays we don’t even notice it. We might appreciate it when we sink into its arms, otherwise it’s just something for our body.
It pleases all of us without reference of age, pedigree, religion or circumstances. You find a couch anywhere from school to workplace, clubs to pubs, down the ground or up high, till you finally arrive home. It is waiting for you with everlasting tolerance, and has seen everything a man could pass through. Love, death, friendship, solitude, caducity, magic, laughter and tears. Jizz and puke.
The movie’s main character and constant performer is the COUCH. A solid Zelig, for three, set in various places, and faraway lives. In a bachelor’s living room, on a corner in Paris, at the therapist, or the gates of Hell. Coffee break shorts on eleven different couches.
Every new micro-universe brings new figures, new conflicts, actions and solutions. Honest, snappy, flabbering, and shocking everyday situations, breath taking moments served with style. Our lovely small fries are fighting their own daemons, with unexpected turns and reactions. A comedy of fixations, frustrations, and neurosis. A joyful observation in the depths of our humanity. But still, we feel like we’re watching moments of our teeming, messy everyday life.
In a country of weakened economy and uncertain identity, the miracle arrives in the body of a galloping horse. A Slovak-Hungarian scrap metal dealer pays 2000 guineas for a no-name ugly runt of a horse. Only one year later it is worth 200 times as much. Soon, the name Overdose appears amongst the fastest horses of this planet.
This unbeatable horse becomes the symbol of chance. After each win unexpected collective emotions rise and mingle with obscure business interests.
The film follows 4 years in the lives of the characters surrounding the horse. It observes the dramatic changes in their relationships and the feelings and reactions of a community, here in Hungary.
It is a story about passion and hope and about the mental state of a nation in the reflection of a “prey-animal”.
“It was nice to be working on news that had nothing to do with daily politics and was a real success story,” Gábor Ferenczi said. “In 2008 a Slovakian Hungarian businessman suddenly found himself in the limelight of Hungarian media attention. He was telling the media how his most beautiful dream had come true, hearing the Hungarian national anthem played all round Europe each time after Overdose won a race. Then there was a race in Paris which, although he had won it, a re-run should have taken place because of the bad start. I was touched by what the trainer said about this. ‘How was I supposed to explain to him, “although you’ve won, sorry, you have to do it again, please…”?!’ It was those two circumstances that got us going: we wanted to find out how this out-of-the-ordinary ‘film’ would end, and how the people waiting for this to happen all their lives would react to the miracle…”
In 2009 Overdose unexpectedly became injured. His hooves got inflamed which resulted in laminitis and, being one of the dreaded diseases of English thoroughbreds, specialists soon gave up on him. However, after 15 months of recuperation, Overdose the wonder horse, made a comeback. In the meantime, five major Hungarian companies co-operated to bring back Overdose, now hailed as the symbol of the nation; the team that had managed his 12 unbeaten series broke up; interests and emotions clashed.
The documentary takes us behind the scenes during the illness, recovery and comeback of Overdose; we are introduced to his owner, trainer, work rider, and the dramatic story of many emotional threads of the horse’s strenuous career.
In this rural coming-of-age story, Zoli, an adolescent boy, who has been grown up in an orphanage, falls in love with his classmate Juli. He is trying to get close to the girl with a wild, obscene and grotesque way of behavior, he acts amazingly confidently but deep inside he is an unstable boy, struggling to build his self-esteem. Although Juli is touched by the boy`s direct sexual advances, she wants to be more persuaded. Zoli doesn`t understand the rules of this game of love, such knowledge has never been taught him. With his more and more uncontrollable behavior he scares Juli who stops all communication with him. To prove his devotion, Zoli cuts his veins open on his arm but Juli turns away with disgust. Left alone, from the sharp physical pain tears roll down Zoli’s face, giving him a sigh with relief after a long time.
Elderly couple in the trafic. The wife chitchats, warns, controls. She is a policeman, a GPS and a commentator at the same time. The husband growls or bursts out. This is how their world works.
But life is a constant replanning..
Art is a the guy you want to be or you want to date with. He’s got the look. He’s got the style. He’s got everything in life, but he’s desperate for water.
Price:
San Francisco Short Film Festival – 2006, Best Screenplay
Festival:
Festival de Punta del Este – 2008
22º FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE MAR DEL PLATA – 2007
37th edition of the Hungarian Film Week – 2005
Rabbit and Deer has won over 70 awards since 2013 including two Oscar-qualifying Best Animated Film Awards at ATLANTA & NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVALS.
Awards:
Children Animation Competition & ‘Little Peter Award’ @ Se-Ma-For – POLAND (Oct 9-13)
AUDIENCE AWARD @ Anim’est – Bucharest, ROMANIA (Oct 4-13)
Grand Young Audience Prize @ Festival Int’l du Court Métrage – Lille, FRANCE (Oct 9th – 13th)
BEST PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATION of the USE of TECHNOLOGY @ Int’l Student Film Fest – CZECH REP., 2013
AUDIENCE AWARD for BEST SHORT FILM @ ANIMAGE Film Festival – BRAZIL, 2013
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM @ Lucas Int’l Children’s Film Festival – GERMANY, 2013
MAIN PRIZE of the ANIMATED SECTION @ 10th Jameson CineFest – HUNGARY, 2013
BEST SHORT FILM @ Buster Children’s Film Festival – DENMARK, 2013
AUDIENCE AWARD for BEST SHORT FILM @ MILANO Film Festival – ITALY, 2013
STUDENT JURY & SILVER BUSHO AWARD @ BuSho International Film Festival – HUNGARY, 2013
BEST ANIMATION TECHNIQUE @ Festival of European Student Animation – SERBIA, 2013
BEST STUDENT FILM and AUDIENCE CHOICE @ We Like ‘Em Short Film Festival – USA, 2013
BEST STUDENT FILM @ 4th Anibar International Animation Festival – KOSOVO, 2013
BEST SCRIPT @ ANIMA MUNDI – Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL, 2013
SPECIAL MENTION @ Supertoon Int’l Animation Festival – CROATIA 2013
HONORABLE MENTION @ Curtas Vila do Conde – PORTUGAL, 2013
BEST SHORT FILM @ Kecskemét Animation Film Festival – HUNGARY, 2013
JURY SPECIAL MENTION @ Young Director Award YDA – Cannes Lions, 2013
JUNIOR JURY AWARD @ Annecy Int’ Animation Film Festival – FRANCE, 2013
TOLERANCE SPECIAL MENTION @ Mediawave – HUNGARY, 2013
AUDIENCE AWARD @ AniFest – Teplice, CZECK, 2013
AUDIENCE AWARD @ GoEast Film Festival 2013 – Wiesbaden, GERMANY
BEST ANIMATED FILM @ Hungarian Film Critics Award 2013 – Budapest, HUNGARY
SPECIAL JURY MENTION @ Infocom-Assocham EME Awards 2013 – New-Delhi, INDIA
Otto works as a conveyor for a food store in Budapest. When his van breaks down during a countryside delivery, he finds himself on an archaeological excavation site. Otto spends one day on the excavation.
Inspector Milton Pritchett is on his way to Aberdeenshire to investigate an unusual case, known as the ‘Wedding Night Murder’. On what would have been their first night of marriage, with all the guests still in the house, the husband kills his newly wed wife, and hangs himself a few days later in a prison cell. A murder. A body. A murderer. Case closed. Not quite. The husband’s family – being of influence – insists on an investigation. They want to know the answer to the only unanswered question. His motive. Why? Pritchett approaches the abandoned crime scene, Meldrum House, with a theory in his pocket. He does not believe in ghosts and houses of evil, but realizes soon, that Meldrum House has a guilty past.
While Cicuka and Laci’s relationship is faltering, Xiuxiu and Lee are getting attracted to each other from a distance of 10,000 km by some incomprehensible force. The apathy of a Sunday afternoon in a dusty little town is being changed by some unanticipated events. The 15-minute comedy is starring Andrea Petrik and Ferenc Elek.
1990, Cluj, Romania.
Three young children re-enact Ceausescu’s execution.
Who will be the victim?
Prizes:
2014 – Sarajevo Film Festival
Special Jury Mention
Festivals:
2014 – Cannes International Film Festival (in competition)
2014 – Helsinki Love & Anarchy International Film Festival
2014 – Sarajevo Film Festival (in competition)
2014 – Vukovar Film Festival (in competition)
Laci is a 16-year old gypsy boy, who lives off casual jobs. One day, he gets picked up from the streets along with a small group of workers for a construction job. He has to participate in the completion of a wall, that surrounds a series of tenement buildings. The film follows the various stages of the construction as Laci helps out the other workers. In the end, Laci is asked to complete the work. He now takes his first look beyond the wall, which holds an unusual revelation for him.
Juli washes dishes all day. Adam hands out leaflets on the street. They’re bonded by an unusual love. This is the day their secret falls flat. They have to tell their mother they have taken it too far. This is a short film about family ties, responsibility and social boundaries.
Film and the Fall of the Iron Curtain
Film screenings and lectures commemorating the 25th
anniversary of the Iron Curtain 25 years ago in Europe
November 14-15 Coppola Theater SFSU Open to the Public
Seminar held by:
Steven Kovacs: Chair, Cinema Department
Réka Pigniczky, journalist and documentary filmmaker (56Films)
with guest speakers from UC Berkeley, SFSU and the Center for
Terrorism and Intelligence Studies
Friday, November 14, 4-10pm
Réka Pigniczky — “Introduction: Film and the Fall of the Iron Curtain”
Lecture: „The Role of the West in the Collapse of Soviet Socialism,” Edward Walker (UCB, Political Science)
5pm FILM: Farewell Comrades! Part 1 of a 6-part TV documentary series.
Directed by Andrei Nekrasov, written by Jean-Francois Colosimo, György Dalos and Andrei Nekrasov, 52 min.
Synopsis: A comprehensive view of the last fifteen years of Communism, presented chronologically in all the countries involved, featuring the people who lived through it and who brought it to an end.
6.00pm Q&A about the film with Prof. Walker, moderated by Pigniczky and Kovacs
6.30pm Dinner (off campus)
7.30pm Lecture: “The End of the Cold War as the most recent liberation of Eastern Europe from Outside Powers,” Jason Wittenberg, (UC Berkeley Political Science)
8pm FILM: Bolshe Vita, feature film directed by Ibolya Fekete, 1996, Hungary. 100 min.
Synopsis: Russians, Hungarians, and Westerners live unique moments in post-89 Hungary.
9.30pm Q&A about the film with Prof. Wittenberg, moderated by Pigniczky and Kovacs
Saturday, November 15, 9-5pm
9:00 Lecture: „The New Cold War in Europe and Eurasia,” Andrei P. Tsygankov (Political Science and International Relations, SFSU)
9.30am FILM: Farewell Comrades! (Part 5) 52 min.
10.30am Q&A about the film with Andrei Tsygankov, moderated by Pigniczky and Kovacs
11am FILM: Kapitalism, our improved Formula, documentary film, 2010, Romania, directed by Alexandru Solomon. 90 min.
Synopsis: An imaginary return of dictator Ceausescu after 20 years of capitalism in his country, Romania, where he finds a new society but also old habits in the country’s businessmen.
12.30pm Q&A about the film moderated by Pigniczky and Kovacs
1pm Lunch Break (off campus)
2pm Lecture: “The End of the Cold War and the crisis in the Ukraine,” Gordon Hahn, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, Akribis Group.
2:30pm FILM: Three Rooms of Melancholia, a 3-part documentary by Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland, 2004. 105 min.
Synopsis: This award-winning, stunningly beautiful documentary reveals how the Chechen War has psychologically affected children in Russia and in Chechnya. THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA, which poetically blends sustained close-ups of children’s faces with gray, fog-shrouded landscapes, illuminates the emotional devastation wrought on youngsters who have little or no understanding of the historical and political reasons for the bitter conflict. In an even more troubling sense, the film also makes clear how the seeds of hatred are being instilled in young minds that will likely fuel the conflict into the next generation.
4pm Q&A about the film with Gordon Hahn, moderated by Pigniczky and Kovacs, summary of course.
