Hungarian Documentaries, Shorts Show in L.A.

The Life of an Agent

 

All of the screenings are free of charge.

 

The programme:

 

- Welcoming words by Mr. Miklós Pereházy, President of the United Hungarian House

- Opening remarks by Ambassador Balázs Bokor, Consul General of Hungary

- Greetings by Dr. Robert Gyori, President of the William Fox Hungarian Film Club

 

"Hunky Blues - The American Dream" (Az amerikai álom)

2009 / 100 min / English / Director Péter Forgács, Producer Gábor Kovács

Péter Forgács created a documentary exploring the fate of hundred thousands of Hungarian men and women who arrived to the United States between 1890 and 1921. To tell their sagas Forgács weaved this grand epic from the early American cinema, found footage, photographs and interviews. The film reveals the difficult moments of arrival, integration and assimilation, which eventually fed the happiness of the later generations and their fulfillment of the American dream.

 

 

 

"Born Dead - Children on the Edge of Survival" (Néma bölcsők - Gyermekek a túlélés szélén)

2009 / 32 minutes / English with Hungarian subtitles / Director Hesna Al Ghaoui, Producer Balázs Frida

Born Dead, a documentary by Hesna Al Ghaoui about the causes and prevent of child mortality.

 

2007 / 25 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Ferenc Sebő, Producers Csanád Darvas and Miklós Havas

Young lovers move into a new apartment, and they find themselves living next door too - only 20 years later.

 

 

(Dunai Exodus: A folyó beszédes áramlatai)

1998 / 60 min / English / Director Péter Forgács, Producer Cesar Messemaker

In the travelogue The Danube Exodus, Péter Forgács documents the Jewish exodus from Slovakia just before the beginning of World War II. In two boats, a group of nine hundred Slovak, Austrian Jews tried to reach the Black Sea via the river Danube, in order to get to Palestine from there. Forgács based his film on the amateur films of Captain Nándor Andrásovits, the captain of one of the boats. He filmed his passengers while they prayed, slept, and even got married. At the end of this journey, it is clear that the boat will not return empty: a reverse exodus takes place, this time of repatriating Bessarabian Germans, fleeing to the Third Reich because of the Soviet invasion of Bessarabia...

 

 

"Gypsy Dreams" (Roma Álom)

2009 / 52 min / English & Hungarian / Director and Producer Eszter Nordin

A Hungarian Gypsy family comes to the conclusion that they can no longer survive in their native country. Racial discrimination and unemployment are the major factors in their decision to uproot themselves and migrate to England. Their chosen destination is Bolton where there is already a sizable Hungarian Gypsy population. The documentary follows the Lazi family's struggle to establish themselves in England for nearly two years. An initially promising start has taken a tough turn in the harsh winter of 2009, as recession began to bite hard and British factories closed their doors to foreign workers. Nevertheless, the Lazis hang on in hope, expecting their fourth child.

 

 

"Borderline Case" (Határeset)

2006 / 32 min/ Hungarian, German with English Subtitles / Director Péter Szalay

In August 1989, having lived in Weimar in the German Democratic Republic, Kurt-Werner Schulz and Gundula Schafitel and their 6-year-old son were crossing Hungary on their way to the Western world. As so many of their East German fellow compatriots, they were planning to cross the border illegally. However, they had no hope of succeeding if all three of them stayed together. The story is told in the manner of a criminal investigation, spiced with some humor.

 

 

 

"Journey Home" (Hazatérés)

 

2008 / 88 min / Hungarian with English subtitles

Director Réka Pigniczky

A journey by two American women to bury their father's ashes in Hungary turns into a quest to find out exactly what he did as a freedom fighter there during the revolution of 1956...

 

 

2009 / 52 min/ Hungarian, English Subtitles / Director Péter Szalay

Once upon a time there was a recorder maker with starry eyes, a dream-maker travelling from village to village, and a travelleing photographer looking for light. A true fairy tale in the hectic 21st century.

 

2009 / 49 min / English / Director and Producer Susan Papp

A Love Story is the story of a Christian man named Tibor Schroeder and a Jewish woman named Hedy Weisz who met and fell in love during the Second World War. The story happens at the worst possible moment - at a time when romantic liaisons and marriage between Christians and Jews is against the law.

 

 

"My castle, my shelter" (Menedéket adó váram)

2001 / 63 min/ Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Szilveszter Siklósi, Producers Tamás Fehéri and Dr. Erzsébet Szilágyi

In early 1944, Archabbot Kelemen Krizosztom wrote to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with a proposal that the Arch Abbey, situated in North-Western Hungary, be placed at the disposal of the ICRC. Friedrich Born, the ICRC delegate in Budapest, took this opportunity both to help protect the 950-year old historical buildings and at the same time make use of them to provide shelter for refugees from the conflict. Born obtained agreements from the Hungarian government and the German military that the premises of the abbey were to be regarded as militarily neutral, despite the fact that they were directly on the line of defense between the Soviet Red Army and the German forces. Eduard Benedek Brunschweiler (1910-1987), a Swiss national was appointed by the ICRC to manage the Benedictine Arch Abbey of Pannonhalma on their behalf, during the final months of the German occupation, towards the end of the Second World War. As the Red Army approached Pannonhalma, the refugee population grew to about 3000 people. Following the defeat of the defensive forces around the abbey in April 1945, the Red Army took control of the area and Brunschweiler and the ICRC were expelled from the Abbey.

 

Hesna Al Ghaoui

George Paul Csicsery

Miklós Havas

Eszter Nordin

Susan Papp

Zsigmond Papp

Clips will be screened from Gábor Kálmán`s film: "There was once..."

1993 / 57 min / English / Director, Producer, and Editor George Paul Csicsery

A man with no home and no job, Paul Erdős was the most prolific mathematician who ever lived. Born in Hungary in 1913, Erdős wrote and co-authored over 1,500 papers and pioneered several fields in theoretical mathematics. At the age of 83 he still spent most of his time on the road, going from math meeting to math meeting, continually working on problems. He died on September 20, 1996 while attending such a meeting in Warsaw, Poland.

 

(Kémek a porfészekben - Rimner Gábor története)

2008 / 51 min / English / Director and Producer Gábor Zsigmond Papp

"A container sent by me was a very simple thing. I bought four or five matchboxes, emptied them and threw away part of the inner drawer and wrapped insulating tape around the other cover, folded up what I wrote and put that in. It then appeared like a thin black ruler which was just the right size for me to stick to an agreed place with a magnet. This was called a drop-site, a place to pass on messages. At street corners, like one close to the Operetta Theatre, there was a grey cast iron electricity box, I put a magnet in it as well and stuck it on underneath." (Quotation from the film)

 

"Parents with limits" (7 év)

2007 / 56 min / Hungarian with English subtitles / Director and Producer Eszter Nordin

They love each other, they want to get married, and they want to have children. But these two are different, and they will be parents with limits. Kata, the mother, has learning difficulties and can barely read and write. Laszlo, the father, was rejected by his Gipsy family as a baby and grew up in various institutions for the disabled. He is deaf and dumb. Laci, their firstborn, however, has an IQ of 138...

 

 

(A forradalom arca. Egy pesti lány nyomában)

2001-2006 / 71 min / Hungarian, English, & French

Director and Producer by Attila Kékesi, Co-Producer Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Researchers: Phil Casoar, journalist and Eszter Balázs, historian

In his investigative documentary The Face Of The Revolution Attila Kékesi goes in search of a Budapest girl, once a revolutionary, known from the inside cover page of the 10 November 1956 issue of Paris Match. Besides the personal faith of the heroine, we experience the environment, traumas and suffering that awaited emigrants to Western Europe and overseas in 1956. The film also documents the search for historical truth.

 

"Free Fall" (Az örvény) 1996 / 75 min / English / Director, Editor, and Producer: Péter Forgács

Free fall reflects to the times before the Shoah, the darkest chapter of the 20th century Hungary, based on the home movies of the talented musician, photographer and businessman, György Pető who made 8mm films from 1938. We follow their story, to discover what's behind the Pető's happiness, how they suppress the fearful signs of threatening evidences of forthcoming massacres. Free Fall envisions the illusions of a Jewish Hungarian family eroded step by step, the happy, banal moments framed by the Hungarian Jewish laws. How do we understand segregation, the racist laws if 'angels' voice recites them? We follow their determination, the unpredictable events, and their illusions, and hopes until the very last moments.

 

"The Golden Bird" (Aranymadár)

1999 / 30 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director István Szaladják, Producers György Durst and András Muhi

"Our spirit, like a falcon sits on the arm of wisdom - it flings us away when we are born, and waits for us to return when we die."

 

"Tell Your Children" (Meséld el...)

2007 / 5 min / No Dialogue / Director and Writer András Salamon, Producer István Major

It is 1945 in Hungary and the Arrow Cross is carrying out mass murders on the banks of the Danube. This beautifully crafted and powerful fiction short is the story of a little girl who miraculously survives this massacre.

 

"Alena's Journey" (Alena utazása)

2008 / 15 min / Serbo-Croatian with English Subtitles /director Károly Ujj Mészáros, producer Csanád Darvas

Alena, an inhibited, thirty-year old accountant from Sarajevo has a plane to catch in the afternoon to Zurich. Her boss and strict father do everything they can to prevent her from attending a four-month business course.

 

"Train" (Vonat)

2009 / 7 min / No Dialogue / Director Can Togay, Producer: Miklós Havas

There are railway stations with just a few pairs of tracks. A boy is staring at the passing train. Light flashes between the carriages. Then suddenly the endless rhythm is over. The boy is watching the disappearing train. These are still his eyes. But something has changed...

 

"Werewolf" (Farkasember)

2007 / 13 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Márton Vécsei, Producers Csanád Darvas and Miklós Havas

Anything can happen on the beach, even that you get to see forbidden scenes.

 

"Let's Roll" (Megyünk)

2007 / 11 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Simon Szabó, Producer Vera Varjasi

Two friends set out for the coast, with a sedated grandmother in the back of a van.

 

 

"Grenades" (Gránátok)

2003 / 18 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Péter Politzer, Producer András Muhi

The uprising has been put down. The rebels are dispersed and still in hiding.

"Before Dawn" (Hajnal előtt)

2005 / 13 min / Hungarian with English Subtitles / Director Bálint Kenyeres / Producers Bálint Kenyeres and András Muhi

Before dawn, people will rise and other people will take away their hope.

"With a Little Patience" (Türelem)

2006 / 14 min / Director László Nemes Jeles, Producer András Muhi

An office clerk as seen during her daily routine - all the little vibrations of her face. And a man, impatiently waiting for her, beyond the windows.

"Overborder" (Határontúl)

2003 / 22 min / No Dialogues / Director Árpád Schilling, Producers Máté Gáspár, Gábor Rajna, Árpád Schilling, and Gábor Sipos

The three short stories are dealing with the problem of refugees.

"Transport" (Fuvar)

2008 / 10 min / Director Tamás Buvári, Producers Csanád Darvas and Miklós Havas

"He screeched to a halt with us on the sharpest of the nights, mumbled something, then everything went silent..."

 

 

"The Life of an Agent" (Az ügynök élete)

2004 / 82 min / Hungarian & English / Director and Producer Gábor Zsigmond Papp

Hundreds of propaganda and instructional films as well as short and full-length features were produced by the Film Studio of the Ministry of Interior between 1958 and 1988. The films sought to teach the secret police about the best ways to protect the socialist state. Topics included the clandestine house-search, the operative shadowing of select targets, the installation of tapping devices, and the organization of agents and denouncers. The plain and straightforward narration of the films is slightly out of step with their serious patriotic aims, and modern viewers will be astonished by the amount of money, time and energy devoted to a form of ideological education which was both complex and expensive. This selection neatly illustrates how the coercive organization of Kádár's dictatorship worked, and what major motives lay behind it.

 

"Regions in Target" (Célkeresztben a Régiók)

2007-2009 / 30 min / Hungarian with English subtitles / Director Béla Fáy

Hungary has an all-year-round hunting season, each time of year having its own specialties. Moreover, this active recreation also provides an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with Hungarian cuisine and wines, immediately giving three good reasons why it is worth trying out a Hungarian hunting holiday.

 

 

Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI), mfa.gov.hu