Mundruczó, who is competing with his film Delta for the Palme d'Or at the 61st Cannes Film Festival, which starts Wednesday, is no stranger to French cinephiles. His film Pleasant Days (Szép napok), which won the a Silver Leopard in Locarno in 2002 and whose lead Orsi Tóth took the top prize for best female role in Angers in 2004, made it to French cinemas. And his next film, Johanna, was shown in the Un certain regard programme, which runs parallel with the Cannes Film Festival, in 2005.
Le Monde writes that Mundruczó follows in a tradition that includes the composer Béla Bartók and the Hungarian film directors Miklós Jancsó and Béla Tarr, though Mundruczó himself acknowledges he was influenced by Fassbinder and Robert Bresson.
Delta examines the idyll of a brother and sister - played by Orsi Tóth - "without pretense, in the wild of nature," Le Monde writes.
"The woman carries in her human essence everything that interests me: silence, dependence and strength," Mundruczó told Le Monde. "My films lead into a narrow world, a microcosm. In Delta, I examine the essence of the feeling of love that knows no taboo or fatalism - that perfection that neither the dimension of scandal nor lack of perception can wreck."
"Deviant heroines are less interesting than real people, who, even though all circumstance may be against them, still love each other," Mundruczó adds.
Source/Photo: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
