Hungary has chosen Barnabás Tóth’s “Those Who Remained,” which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, as its official entry in the Oscars’ International Feature Film category. Variety’s reviewer described the drama as “achingly tender” and “an exquisite, poignantly performed tale.” Menemsha Films will release the film in North America.
Set in Budapest after the end of World War II, the film centers on the relationship between two Hungarians struggling to cope with the aftermath of the Holocaust. Aladár (Károly Hajduk) is a “gentle but haunted” middle-aged doctor, whose wife and sons died in the concentration camps; Klára (Abigél Szőke) – in furious denial over the loss of her parents – is a 16-year-old “force of nature,” who “storms her way into his life,” Variety film critic Alissa Simon writes in her review.
“[The film] taps into a deep well of honestly earned emotion as it tells the story of two traumatized survivors...
Set in Budapest after the end of World War II, the film centers on the relationship between two Hungarians struggling to cope with the aftermath of the Holocaust. Aladár (Károly Hajduk) is a “gentle but haunted” middle-aged doctor, whose wife and sons died in the concentration camps; Klára (Abigél Szőke) – in furious denial over the loss of her parents – is a 16-year-old “force of nature,” who “storms her way into his life,” Variety film critic Alissa Simon writes in her review.
“[The film] taps into a deep well of honestly earned emotion as it tells the story of two traumatized survivors...
- 9/3/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Enhanced tax rebate has resulted in a mini-production boom.
After troubled times, Hungarian film is on the mend. That was the message from Hungarian Film Fund CEO Agnes Havas at this year’s European Film Market (Efm).
Local market share for Hungarian films is still low (precise figures for 2014 are not yet available) but the industry is enjoying a mini-production boom.
The enhanced 25% tax rebate is helping draw foreign production to the country. Ridley Scott has been in Budapest shooting his new sci-fi thriller The Martian for Twentieth Century Fox, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristen Wiig.
Scripted by Drew Goddard, and adapted from the Andy Weir book, it is the story of an astronaut stranded on a Martian colony. Scott recently gave a film masterclass in Budapest.
Also shooting in Hungary are Pernilla August’s Serious Game, Jonathan Mostow’s Hunter’s Prayer starring Sam Worthington and Alan Ball’s new HBO pilot...
After troubled times, Hungarian film is on the mend. That was the message from Hungarian Film Fund CEO Agnes Havas at this year’s European Film Market (Efm).
Local market share for Hungarian films is still low (precise figures for 2014 are not yet available) but the industry is enjoying a mini-production boom.
The enhanced 25% tax rebate is helping draw foreign production to the country. Ridley Scott has been in Budapest shooting his new sci-fi thriller The Martian for Twentieth Century Fox, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristen Wiig.
Scripted by Drew Goddard, and adapted from the Andy Weir book, it is the story of an astronaut stranded on a Martian colony. Scott recently gave a film masterclass in Budapest.
Also shooting in Hungary are Pernilla August’s Serious Game, Jonathan Mostow’s Hunter’s Prayer starring Sam Worthington and Alan Ball’s new HBO pilot...
- 2/13/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
K5 Independent is to handle international sales for Visar Morina’s feature debut Father (Babai) which is currently shooting in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Shooting began at the beginning of this month in Macedonia’s Ohrid for the German-Kosovar-Macedonian co-production between Nicole Gerhards’ NiKo Film, Produksioni Krusha and Skopjie Film Studio.
A refugee hostel somewhere in Germany was recreated on the grounds of the the former British and Nato headquarters in Mönchengladbach-Rheindahlen, and there is also shooting at locations in Kosovo.
Financial backing for the production has come from broadcasters Wdr and Arte, Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw, Kosovo Cinematography Center, German Federal Film Board (Ffa), nordmedia, and the Macedonian Film Fund. Theatrical distribution in Germany will be handled by Berlin-based missingFilms.
Pristina-born Morina, who studied at the Academy of Media Arts (Khm) in Cologne, also wrote the screenplay about 10-year-old Nori who is obliged to grow up at a very young age after the early death of his mother...
Shooting began at the beginning of this month in Macedonia’s Ohrid for the German-Kosovar-Macedonian co-production between Nicole Gerhards’ NiKo Film, Produksioni Krusha and Skopjie Film Studio.
A refugee hostel somewhere in Germany was recreated on the grounds of the the former British and Nato headquarters in Mönchengladbach-Rheindahlen, and there is also shooting at locations in Kosovo.
Financial backing for the production has come from broadcasters Wdr and Arte, Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw, Kosovo Cinematography Center, German Federal Film Board (Ffa), nordmedia, and the Macedonian Film Fund. Theatrical distribution in Germany will be handled by Berlin-based missingFilms.
Pristina-born Morina, who studied at the Academy of Media Arts (Khm) in Cologne, also wrote the screenplay about 10-year-old Nori who is obliged to grow up at a very young age after the early death of his mother...
- 7/23/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Films from Russia, Kosovo and Serbia were the main winners at this year’s FilmFestival Cottbus and its parallel East-West co-production market Connecting Cottbus.
Russian director Aleksandr Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe Away has continued its successful international festival career by picking up the Main Prize at Germany’s Cottbus festival with a cash award of €20,000.
The International Competition Jury praised Veledinsky’s “exquisite mastery of his craft and great playfulness” in its motivation.
Handled internationally by Moscow-based Ant!pode Sales & Distribution, The Geographer Drank His Globe Away was released theatrically on almost 500 screens in Russia last Thursday (Nov 7) as well as in the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Forthcoming festival invitations include the Black Nights Festival in Tallinn and festivals in Tromsø and Göteborg.
Winning the festival’s Main Prize also gives Veledinsky and his producers the opportunity to return to Cottbus next year as part of Connecting Cottbus’ Special Pitch Award for them to...
Russian director Aleksandr Veledinsky’s The Geographer Drank His Globe Away has continued its successful international festival career by picking up the Main Prize at Germany’s Cottbus festival with a cash award of €20,000.
The International Competition Jury praised Veledinsky’s “exquisite mastery of his craft and great playfulness” in its motivation.
Handled internationally by Moscow-based Ant!pode Sales & Distribution, The Geographer Drank His Globe Away was released theatrically on almost 500 screens in Russia last Thursday (Nov 7) as well as in the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Forthcoming festival invitations include the Black Nights Festival in Tallinn and festivals in Tromsø and Göteborg.
Winning the festival’s Main Prize also gives Veledinsky and his producers the opportunity to return to Cottbus next year as part of Connecting Cottbus’ Special Pitch Award for them to...
- 11/11/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
After writing screenplays for director Gyorgy Szomjas in the 1980s and making documentaries about the recent history of her native Hungary, Ibolya Fekete graduates to feature film directing with resounding success in "Bolshe Vita".
Winner of two awards at this year's Hungarian Film Week in Budapest, Fekete's lively and well-realized vision of her country's doorway-to-the-West capital in 1990 bowed locally last month at Laemmle Theatres' first Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
An ensemble comedy-drama that primarily follows three youngish male runaways from the disintegrating Soviet Union, the Hungarian-German co-production is talky but fast-moving, capturing the spirit of "happy times" when Slavic lonely hearts wooed adventuresome Anglo girls and first tasted freedom.
The film opens with the first of many documentary-like montages of Hungary's opening its western border in 1989 and the break with the Soviet Union, accompanied by a rock song that joyfully declares, "You don't know how good it feels without you." The collapse of the Soviet Union made Hungary the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe, attracting a stream of refugees and unsavory types.
Musicians Yura (Yuri Fomichev) and Vadim (Igor Chernievich) are on their way to Belgrade when they are stranded in Budapest. With the help of sympathetic Hungarian Erzsi (Agnes Mahr), guitar-playing romantic Yura and moody saxophonist Vadim meet English party girl Maggie (Helen Baxendale) and her equally friendly American roommate, Susan (Caroline Loncq).
The third Russian on the loose is Sergei (Alexei Serebriakov), a blond hunk with a broken heart, a suitcase full of knives and boundless optimism that he'll make money and head off soon to bigger things. His story is the most awkwardly rendered, with earthy, soulful Erzsi frustrated by his combination of naivete and arrogance.
From the murky goings-on at the bustling outdoor market to music and drink at the titular nightclub where the city's young and restless gather, Fekete's characters ring true, even if they occasionally address the audience with revealing asides.
Yura and Vadim struggle as street musicians, but at least one of them will succeed at romance, while the pair of Maggie and Susan are intriguing and act consistently with the milieu's overall code of honor among fellow travelers in the journey of life.
The result of Sergei's race to fund the next leg of his journey west, alas, is not so rosy, and the film takes a decidedly dire look at what happened to those who couldn't swim in the tumultuous times. The film, which concludes on a guardedly happy note in 1994, boasts strong production values and all-around engaging performances.
BOLSHE VITA
An MIT Studio/ZDF production
Writer-director Ibolya Fekete
Producer Istvan Darday
Director of photography Andras Szalai
Set design Zsolt Juhasz Buday
Costumes Zsuzsa Partenyi
Editor Klara Majoros
Music Yuri Fomichev, Ferenc Muk
Color/stereo
Cast:
Yura Yuri Fomichev
Vadim Igor Chernievich
Sergei Alexei Serebriakov
Erzsi Agnes Mahr
Maggie Helen Baxendale
Susan Caroline Loncq
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Winner of two awards at this year's Hungarian Film Week in Budapest, Fekete's lively and well-realized vision of her country's doorway-to-the-West capital in 1990 bowed locally last month at Laemmle Theatres' first Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
An ensemble comedy-drama that primarily follows three youngish male runaways from the disintegrating Soviet Union, the Hungarian-German co-production is talky but fast-moving, capturing the spirit of "happy times" when Slavic lonely hearts wooed adventuresome Anglo girls and first tasted freedom.
The film opens with the first of many documentary-like montages of Hungary's opening its western border in 1989 and the break with the Soviet Union, accompanied by a rock song that joyfully declares, "You don't know how good it feels without you." The collapse of the Soviet Union made Hungary the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe, attracting a stream of refugees and unsavory types.
Musicians Yura (Yuri Fomichev) and Vadim (Igor Chernievich) are on their way to Belgrade when they are stranded in Budapest. With the help of sympathetic Hungarian Erzsi (Agnes Mahr), guitar-playing romantic Yura and moody saxophonist Vadim meet English party girl Maggie (Helen Baxendale) and her equally friendly American roommate, Susan (Caroline Loncq).
The third Russian on the loose is Sergei (Alexei Serebriakov), a blond hunk with a broken heart, a suitcase full of knives and boundless optimism that he'll make money and head off soon to bigger things. His story is the most awkwardly rendered, with earthy, soulful Erzsi frustrated by his combination of naivete and arrogance.
From the murky goings-on at the bustling outdoor market to music and drink at the titular nightclub where the city's young and restless gather, Fekete's characters ring true, even if they occasionally address the audience with revealing asides.
Yura and Vadim struggle as street musicians, but at least one of them will succeed at romance, while the pair of Maggie and Susan are intriguing and act consistently with the milieu's overall code of honor among fellow travelers in the journey of life.
The result of Sergei's race to fund the next leg of his journey west, alas, is not so rosy, and the film takes a decidedly dire look at what happened to those who couldn't swim in the tumultuous times. The film, which concludes on a guardedly happy note in 1994, boasts strong production values and all-around engaging performances.
BOLSHE VITA
An MIT Studio/ZDF production
Writer-director Ibolya Fekete
Producer Istvan Darday
Director of photography Andras Szalai
Set design Zsolt Juhasz Buday
Costumes Zsuzsa Partenyi
Editor Klara Majoros
Music Yuri Fomichev, Ferenc Muk
Color/stereo
Cast:
Yura Yuri Fomichev
Vadim Igor Chernievich
Sergei Alexei Serebriakov
Erzsi Agnes Mahr
Maggie Helen Baxendale
Susan Caroline Loncq
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/5/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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