Robin Hood
A war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown.
His Parents' Eyes
The documentary follows the life of a blind couple who, despite social prejudice, decided to have a child. Ferike has a dream: when he grows up, he will collect the money for his parents’ surgery so that they can regain their eyesight and be able to see just like him. For the time being, he accompanies them in their daily life. He assists them everywhere: in a shop, on the way to work, in a museum or the zoo. The parents do their best to have the son enjoy his childhood just like his peers and, at the same time, not move too far away from them.
A Village Romance
Set in a small Hungarian village that was once a popular lesbian community, Bodis Kriszia's documentary chronicles the tumultuous love story between two women and their struggle to live together as a couple. The women try to keep their relationship secret, but the situation explodes into a full-blown family crisis when one partner's abusive husband learns the truth.
Another One for Daddy
A short film about the 'husband stitch' - a little known misogynistic practice performed after childbirth and how it affects the life of those who are involved.
The King
England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.
Selection
SELECTION documents a KISZ (Hungarian Young Communist League) chapter at an oil refinery that is interested in hiring a musical act as entertainment for young workers. The documentary shows the group discussing their criteria for the band, as well as their interviews with the individual bands. It is quickly apparent that the group isn’t interested in any sort of musical talent or the potential audiences’ interest. Rather, they are focused on ideological or moral issues that may be perceived as negative, such as groupies or outfits that are seen as too trendy. They settle on the musical group that is potentially the easiest to control, the youngest band. SELECTION works as a larger metaphor for what censorship was like in Socialist Hungary and was banned from being publicly screened until 1982.
Silent Friend
In the heart of a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany stands a majestic ginkgo tree. This silent witness has observed over a century the quiet rhythms of transformation across three human lives. At three distinct moments across the 20th and 21st centuries, these people — each carrying their own questions and inner struggles — inevitably find themselves drawn into the presence of this tree, full of mystery and meaning.
Cain's Children
Three boys, they all committed murder. After discovering their haunting faces and disturbing stories in a banned prison documentary from 1984, the filmmaker goes out to find them and discovers untold secrets and a Hungary he has never known.
Letter to God
A young farmer in his thirties lives in deep poverty with his wife and children on a farm far away from the village. The driest summer of his life endangers everything he had built and created.
The Citizen
The heart-wrenching story of The Citizen begins with a citizenship exam, where the examination committee rigorously questions a middle-aged African man. No matter how beautifully he recites Hungarian poetry, Wilson, a political refugee in his late fifties, fails the exams for the umpteenth time, because he doesn’t know where the periodical ‘Magyar Közlöny’ got its name from, and what the Corvinae are. Moreover, inspired by Vörösmarty’s poem, the committee chairman even questions his reasons for leaving his mother country. Wilson argues that his reasons include his fellow citizens cutting pregnant women in half, yet he doesn’t manage to soften the heart of the committee members.
A tartótiszt
The Age of the Barbarians
An animated collage of life in the terrifying modern age.
The Resolution
Shot in 1972, this remarkable documentary was released ten years later and had its first Western film festival screenings last year. "Gyula Gazdag is an outstanding Hungarian talent who seems to specialize in getting into trouble. This film, which he made with Judit Ember, another alert and sensitive director, was banned for ten years. In it, a rural community is in financial trouble and an expert from Budapest is sent to advise and reorganize. He is successful but his manner angers the local committee. Despite their own management failure, they feel his arrogance should be the subject of a reprimand at least. The story is more than just true: so sure was the community of its cause that Gazdag and Ember were invited to film the actual debate, and the reality makes us protagonists in the case. It is a situation that could happen anywhere but seldom has such a subject been treated in so absorbing and striking a way.
Ida regénye
It's Not the Time of My Life
Eszter, her husband Farkas, and their five-year-old son Bruno are paid an unexpected visit in the middle of the night. Eszter’s sister Ernella, her husband Albert and daughter Laura have returned from a year spent in Scotland where, contrary to expectations, they weren’t able to settle down. It soon becomes clear that the two families had never really been in tune with one another.
Abel in America
A Rose Garden of Six Acres
Aunt Ilka, who likes company, opens her house standing in the middle of a six-acre rose garden in the little town for the golden youth of the town. As a result of her benevolence, the tenants are in the position to adore not only the roses but a nice bunch of to-be-married girls of the town.
Pócspetri
In 1948, when schools were nationalized, a policeman was killed in Pócspetri. The authorities accused the whole village and instigated a hearing. Now the people of the village tell us all about the events of the past.
The Prosecution
The Christmas of 1944. The Pásztor family (father, mother, four daughters and a grandchild), are spending the holidays at their country farm. Péter, mothers apple of the eye, soon arrives, and has no objections when his soldiers uniform is made to disappear during the night. The Soviet army, arriving in the footsteps of the fleeing Hungarian army, is commandeering. At night, the soldiers turn up at the house where young women are abiding.
