After making the creepy sci-fi love story “Womb” with Eva Green in English, Hungarian director Benedek “Bence” Fliegauf returns to his home country and a much more realistic register with “Just the Wind.” Inspired by true events that occurred a couple of years ago, the film looks at the last day of a Romany family — composed of a mother (Katalin Toldi), her adolescent daughter (Gyongyi Lendvai) and her younger brother (Lajos Sarkany) — in a country where casual racism and verbal hatred of the Gypsy community have become such an accepted part of life that no one, not even the police and, to an extent, the Romany themselves, think it particularly strange or alarming. This allows for the tension to turn occasionally into horrific violence, foretold here in an onscreen text before the film starts that ensures that audiences will look at the seemingly quotidian events with different eyes but also...
- 9/14/2012
- by Boyd van Hoeij
- Indiewire
Just The Wind is the kind of film that ought to be experienced rather than enjoyed. It offers a look at the lives of the Romani people living in Hungary, and is based on true events in which Romani homes were attacked, women were raped, and people were murdered by racist gangs between 2008 and 2009. The film focuses on one particular Romani family, consisting of Mari (Katalin Toldi), her sick elderly father (György Toldi) and two children, Anna (Gyongyi Lendvai) and Rio (Lajos Sarkany). The director has taken a documentary approach to filming and it all feels incredibly real, thanks largely to the actors' natural performances. Audiences follow Mari's family in their mundane day-to-day lives, and learn that these are normal, decent people...
- 9/11/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Just The Wind is the kind of film that ought to be experienced rather than enjoyed. It offers a look at the lives of the Romani people living in Hungary, and is based on true events in which Romani homes were attacked, women were raped and people were murdered by racist gangs between 2008 and 2009. The film focuses on one particular Romani family, consisting of Mari (Katalin Toldi), her sick elderly father (György Toldi) and two children, Anna (Gyongyi Lendvai) and Rio (Lajos Sarkany). The director has taken a documentary approach to filming and it all feels incredibly real thanks largely to the actors' natural performances. Audiences follow Mari's family in their mundane day-to-day lives, and learn that these are normal, decent people who live...
- 6/10/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Berlin — Italian documentary "Caesar Must Die," showing inmates of a high-security prison staging Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," was awarded the Berlin film festival's top award Saturday. Directors Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani received the Golden Bear award out of 18 contenders at what is the first of the year's major European film festivals. The Taviani brothers, both in their early 80s, thanked the international jury led by British director Mike Leigh and sent their greetings to the inmates of Rome's Rebibbia prison, including former mafia leaders, who starred in the film. "I hope that someone, going home, after seeing 'Caesar Must Die' will think that even an inmate, on whose head is a terrible punishment, is, and remains, a man. And this thanks to the sublime words of Shakespeare," Vittorio Taviani said. The two filmmakers spent six months following the rehearsals for the play. The documentary does not dwell on the crimes the inmates have committed,...
- 2/18/2012
- by Kia Makarechi
- Moviefone
Hindu scholars are applauding Hungarian officials for funding a new movie about the plight of Roma gypsies.
Csak a szel (Just The Wind), which will premiere at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, chronicles the daily fight Europe's travelling communities face just to survive at the hands of people who would rather not have them in their country.
And top Hindus, who claim Roma gypsies hail from India, have saluted the film's backers for making a "step in the right direction" and highlighting "the dark side of continuous Roma maltreatment".
Bence Fliegauf's film features amateur Roma actors Lajos Sarkany, Katalin Toldi, Gyongyi Lendvai and Gyorgy Toldi and will compete for a top prize at the film festival, which begins this week.
Rajan Zed, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, says, "In Hungary, despite various government initiatives, Roma face blatant discrimination, shanty town living, an atmosphere of hostility, huge unemployment rate, lower life expectancy, prejudice, significantly higher school drop-out rate, racism, media bias and stereotyping, school segregation, social exclusion, mistrust and human rights violations.
"Instead of continuing to marginalise Roma socially, this country of Lake Balaton, the romantic Danube River, Franz Liszt and Bela Bartok, should be more embracing of the Roma brothers and sisters who have been living with them since 14th century."
And he hopes the film will prompt other European nations to tackle their Roma issues: "It's a moral obligation of Europe to take care of its largest minority Roma population and stop human rights violations suffered by them."...
Csak a szel (Just The Wind), which will premiere at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, chronicles the daily fight Europe's travelling communities face just to survive at the hands of people who would rather not have them in their country.
And top Hindus, who claim Roma gypsies hail from India, have saluted the film's backers for making a "step in the right direction" and highlighting "the dark side of continuous Roma maltreatment".
Bence Fliegauf's film features amateur Roma actors Lajos Sarkany, Katalin Toldi, Gyongyi Lendvai and Gyorgy Toldi and will compete for a top prize at the film festival, which begins this week.
Rajan Zed, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, says, "In Hungary, despite various government initiatives, Roma face blatant discrimination, shanty town living, an atmosphere of hostility, huge unemployment rate, lower life expectancy, prejudice, significantly higher school drop-out rate, racism, media bias and stereotyping, school segregation, social exclusion, mistrust and human rights violations.
"Instead of continuing to marginalise Roma socially, this country of Lake Balaton, the romantic Danube River, Franz Liszt and Bela Bartok, should be more embracing of the Roma brothers and sisters who have been living with them since 14th century."
And he hopes the film will prompt other European nations to tackle their Roma issues: "It's a moral obligation of Europe to take care of its largest minority Roma population and stop human rights violations suffered by them."...
- 2/7/2012
- WENN
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