FILM HUNGARICUM - 31.01.-15.02. 

30 FILMS

Almost all films in our selection have been invited to the most prestigious festivals of the world, and almost all directors whose works we present in HUNGARICUM have been internationally well-reputed and well-decorated.

They have been nominated for and/or awarded Oscar Awards (Zoltan Fabri, Istvan Szabo or Gabor Dettre for his first feature as an associate producer), have been invited and/or won in Cannes (Istvan Gaal, Zsofi Szilagyi), have been celebrated at Berlinale (Zoltan Fabri, Bela Tarr, Bence Fliegauf, Szabolcs Hajdu) have been awarded in Moscow (Zoltan Fabri) in Venice (Gabor Reisz) in Chicago (Laszlo Csuja), Tallinn (Szilard Bernath), Karlovy Vary (Ibolya Fekete, Szabolcs Hajdu), Cottbus (Szilard Bernath) and have been listed for Best European Film Award and for Best European Director Award (Gabor Dettre).

In our selection we have placed the great masters of the past decades and their films in parallel with the emerging generations of our present and their works.

Watch Family Nest;  the 24 year old Bela Tarr`s first feature about a poor Hungarian proletarian family!!!

HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY and ALLEGRO BARBARO are the two mesmerizingly free spirited, poetical sumaries of the history of Hungary by the ingenious Miklos Jancso.

CURRENT is a painfully honest and straightforward tale about the complexity of facing death. Directed by the internationally well renowned Istvan Gaal.

Fifth Seal is the most unique, philosophical, yet heart wrenching drama of probably the greatest Hungarian master Zoltan Fabri.

Gabriel Dettre`s SILENT NIGHT is the loudest critical success of the Hungarian film scene in 2025. The drama is about a highly unlikely encounter between an old lady and a young man.

KALMAN`S DAY and TREASURE CITY are two pieces of real gem on troubled relationships, directed by one of the most internationally well reputed directors of the younger generation, Szabolcs Hajdu.

ONE DAY by Zsofia Szilagyi and SIX WEEKS , directed by Veronika Noemi Szakonyi are two extremely strong dramas, possibly the best representations of what the new generation of Hungarian female directors are interested in!

Gloria Halasz`documentaries are powerful explorations of what talent and ambition can achieve! Watch her PAL FRENAK film or the CIRCUS SIBLINGS or the incredible ALLA ZINGARA, about the orchestra of the most underprivileged minority of Hungary.

LARRY is a multi-awarded drama, directed by young talent, Szilard Bernath, about a young man who almost miraculously overcomes his psychological handicap and becomes a success.

The internationally well awarded EXPLANATION FOR EVERYTHING and  Bad Poems are terrific tableaux of what Hungary is about today, directed by Gabor Reisz, the winner of Venice Film Festival.

SPIRAL is a tragedy, one of the most intriguing psychological stories about love and relationships! Directed by the young Transylvanian lady, Cecilia Felmeri.

Laszlo Csuja`s poetic drama BLOSSOMS VALLEY is an elevating story about strange, highly unusual mental states….. some might call disabilities.

Hungary is an island.

There was a time when it almost felt like a fairy tale island, although to most people it seemed more like a prison. Being lost and having nothing in common with our neighbors of Germanic, Slavic and Latin origin, feeling suspicious, resentful and inferior, the Hungarians - due to nature`s amazing self-healing powers - became drenched with aggression, arrogance and - even more difficult to explain - a sense of superiority over everybody else.

No matter how we approach the Hungarian phenomenon, whether we like it or not, one thing is for sure: there is a special Hungarian sensibility that permeates pretty much everything we do.

The complexity of our national soul appears specifically uniformly and richly in our language related art media, in our theatre, poetry, literature and in our films.

The soul-wrenching, revealing depth of its works has characterized Hungarian film for decades.

Then it all got coupled up with the slow and steady decline of financial resources. We are not able to make films with action scenes, with large crowds of extras, in spectacular locations, with the most modern equipment. However, what we do have - due to our historical background - is a powerful susceptibility and predisposition and - thanks to lacking in certain means - a gradually stronger opportunity to immerse in the human soul, descend into the darkest recesses and explore and understand everything that we talk about less and less in our everyday lives.

We make haikus, film haikus, which by their nature are not glitzy and chiseled in appearance, but are satisfying with their depth, and effective with their artistic subtleties.

And even if they are not always crowd-pleasers – in fact they rarely are - not overly and certainly not lightly entertaining, they have been well recognized and accoladed internationally for their uniquely Eastern-European nature.

We are grateful to Babylon Cinema for giving us a chance to introduce Hungarian films on a scale they never had been shown in Berlin and also to NFI (Hungarian Film Institute) and the NFI Archives of Hungary for their generous support!

Fr. 31. Jan. was the OPENING with the great hungarian musician Snétberger - Solo Gitarre