Meeting with the legend at the 4th Hungarian Film Festival

MOSCOW. In the capital’s cinema KARO October 11, the festival of Hungarian cinema CIFRA opened.

On April 3, the IV CIFRA Hungarian Film Festival opened in the capital. The event is noteworthy, because films from this country are rare guests on our screens. Cinema fans with experience remember what discovery and revelation the tapes of the representatives of the “new wave” were for them: Istvan Szabó (Szabó István), Zoltana Fabri (Fábri Zoltán), Miklos Jancsó, Károly Makk, later Sandor Sára and Marta Mesaros. Success at festivals, the creation of independent creative associations and experimental studios. After the rise of the 60s and 70s - a period of reflection, expectation of change. A series of velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe again spurred public interest in the cinema of the former socialist countries.

But freedom is like a double-edged blade: the transition to a market economy meant not only the abolition of censorship, but also a painful restructuring of the usual way of life. The abolition of state subsidies, which once contributed to the boom of auteur cinema, the closure of large film factories, the absence of serious investors willing to support a business with dubious profitability, and the inconvertibility of a small market.

In the Hungarian cinema of this period, it was time for low-budget debuts. The tendency to commercialize auteur cinema, to increase the share of entertainment films at the box office, was increasingly evident. In the late 90s and early 2000s, directors such as Krisztina Goda, Gabor Herendi, and Tamás Sas made a loud announcement about themselves. The debut film Antal Nimród Kontroll won a lot of prizes at international festivals in Cannes, Chicago, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, Warsaw. A talented young director decided to continue his career in Hollywood.

In recent years, the barometer of Hungarian cinema is increasingly showing "clear." The most striking pages are related to films such as “The Son of Saul” (Saul fia) Laszlo Nemesha (Nemes Jeles László) and the drama “About Body and Soul” (Testről és lélekről) Ildiko Enedi (Enyedi Ildikó). The first picture, which takes place at the Auschwitz concentration camp, won almost all the main cinematic prizes: Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Cannes Festival Grand Prix, David di Donatello. The parable "On the soul and body" received several awards at the 67th Berlinale: Golden Bear, prizes from the ecumenical jury and the International Film Press Federation.

The CIFRA festival is held in the capital for the fourth time. Of particular interest to fans of Hungarian cinema is the participation of Marta Mesaros (Mészáros Márta). And by no means in the role of a "wedding general" or an honored guest long ago retired. The festival began with a demonstration of the new work of the 86-year-old director - the film Aurora Borealis: Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis: Északi fény). Despite the merits and extensive filmography, the director managed to get financing for the film only after 4 years.

Mesaroche’s new film about family secrets and broken silence, trials and finding a new homeland is a kind of roll call with autobiographical tetralogy, which brought her world fame. The memoirs that pervaded her work: about the family moving to the Soviet Union, the arrest and execution of her father in 1937, the death of her mother from typhus, an orphanage, studying at VGIK, returning to her homeland.

On the afternoon of April 5, the indefatigable Mesaros will hold a master class at VGIK. On the evening of the same day, one of her first films, Ők ketten (1977), will be screened at the main venue. “Their Two” is a unique opportunity to see the only joint work of Marina Vlady and Vladimir Vysotsky on the screen, who starred in this picture in an episodic role.

In addition to the tapes of Mesaros in the festival program is the thriller “Monster from Martfu”, the historical drama “1945”, the story of the champion horse “Kinchem is my treasure”.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru