Zanussi has been a producer for or worked in various capacities on ten Hungarian films. He was presented the award in recognition of his life work and for promoting Hungarian-Polish cultural relations.
Zanussi, who turned 70 last year, has made almost 50 feature films, television films, shorts and documentaries over the past four decades. Among them are The Illumination, Camouflage, Spiral, The Constant Factor, Imperative, The Year of the Quiet Sun, and Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease. His work often focuses on the search for liberty, with self-destructive, lonely protagonists seeking the purpose of life.
Zanussi has won best director award at Cannes, the Golden Lion in Venice, and the main festival award in Moscow. He made a film about Pope John Paul II in 1981 and, 15 years later, he adapted to the screen a play written by the pope during his youth. Zanussi is a member of the Vatican's cultural committee. He currently plans to make a film about Queen Jadwiga of Poland, the daughter of the Hungarian king Louis I.
Zanussi has many ties to Hungary. In addition to working on Hungarian films, he has been a guest at Film Week and served as chairman of the jury of the Moveast Festival in Pécs. He regularly delivers lectures at Hungarian film schools and has hosted Hungarian filmmakers in Warsaw.
As part of the celebratory event held at the Hungarian embassy in Warsaw, Bajnai was presented a Polish photo album documenting the reception of Polish WWII refugees in Hungary 70 years ago. The impressive bilingual publication entitled Memory contains 500 archive photographs, many of them published for the first time. The photographs were selected by former Polish ambassador in Budapest Grzegorz Lubczyk and his wife.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
