Los Angeles, California Bunyik Entertainment presents the 12th Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, to run from November 15 through November 22, 2012. The Festival will feature multiple U.S. premieres of Hungary’s latest and greatest films.
It has always been the intent of the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles to showcase contemporary Hungarian films that not only engage the audience but entertain and sometimes enrage them and that is what we feel we have accomplished with the selection of films this year.
November 15, 2012 is Opening Night and will be a double feature;
The first film of the night is THE DOOR, directed by Academy Award winner director, Istvan Szabo, set in Hungary in the 1960s. It stars HELEN MIRREN as a maid and MARTINA GEDECK as a well-to-do novelist who form an unlikely bond. Magda, a female writer struggling for success, employs an elderly woman called Emerence to be her housekeeper. From their first encounter, it is clear that Emerence is no ordinary maid. Although everyone in the neighborhood knows and respects her, no one knows anything about her private life or has ever been allowed to enter her home. However, a dramatic event in the writer’s life prompts Emerence to unveil glimpses of her traumatic past – a past which sheds light on her very peculiar behavior.
The film receives its North American premiere at Laemmle’s NOHO 7 on November 15, 2012 in North Hollywood.
The second film is JUST THE WIND Hungary’s National Film Fund has selected JUST THE WIND, a film featuring a cast of amateur Roma actors, as the country’s entry for Best Foreign Film at next year’s Academy Awards. Directed by Bence Fliegauf, one of Hungary’s most internationally-recognized young directors, returned to his native Hungary to make his fifth feature film, “JUST THE WIND.” Bence Fliegauf was born in 1974 in Budapest. He never attended film school, instead working as an assistant director for television as he continued on the path toward directing, screenwriting, set design and sound engineering.
Hungarian-German-French co-production won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year. It depicts a day in the life of a Roma (gypsie) family while their community is threatened by a series of deadly attacks. Four men are on trial in Budapest charged with attacking Roma in nine Hungarian villages in 2008 and 2009. Six Roma were shot to death, and many were injured. Screening at Laemmle’s NOHO 7 on November 15, 2012 in North Hollywood.
THE TRAGEDY OF MAN (North American Premiere)
“Man, I have spoken: struggle and have faith.”
Written and directed by Marcell Jankovics, based on the play by Imre Madách
Cannes Palme D’Or winner and Oscar-nominated Hungarian legend of animation, Marcell started the process of adapting his film in 1988 and after two decades has finally finished. The film follows the structure of the play and consists of 15 acts that guide us through the past and the future of mankind. It opens with the creation of the world and we are introduced to Adam and Eve and follow them through space and time in search of the meaning of life with the guidance of Lucifer. We watch them travel from the Garden of Eden and other historic periods until we arrive in 19th century London and from there the film explodes past 150 years and we get a glimpse of the future. The film is a dramatic version of the play while it keeps the philosophical profoundness of Madach’s book. The film is visually unique with its wit and makes Lucifer’s fight for the souls of Adam and Eve more compelling than ever.
Among many of the highlights during the festival will be the presentation of a Career Achievement Award to Gyula Gazdag at the residence Club House of the Consul General of Hungary in Los Angeles, November 14, 2012, by invitation only. The Hungarian-born Writer and Director of numerous feature films include A HUNGARIAN FAIRY TALE winner of Best Feature Film of the Year by the Hungarian Film Critics and screened at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. STAND OFF winner of a Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastian Festival. He serves as the Artistic Director of the Sundance Filmmakers Lab.