On Monday, the 38-year-old Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes bagged the Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for his debut feature Son of Saul. For the second time Hungarian film won the prestigious accolade István Szabó’s Mephisto won it in 1954.
Hungary has had rich cinema culture and industry from the beginning of the 20th century. With directors like Istvan Szabo, Bela Tarr and Miklos Jancso, an affluent industry has grown in the country while figures like William Fox, founder of Fox Studios and Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Pictures, Hungarians lend a hand to good cinema outside the border too. We’ve picked a few gems of Hungarian cinema in the recent years which earn plaudits alongside the Son of Saul.
Liza the Fox-Fairy, 2015
This dark fairytale follows Liza, a young woman looking for love who may or may not be a fox-fairy, an evil demon who sucks the souls out of the men she meets. Made under artistic inspiration of Jean Pierre Janet’s French masterpiece Amelie and blended with Japanese folklore, the film delivers touches of whimsy and a large helping of Hungarian intensity and humour.
White God, 2014
Director Kornel Mundruczo’s audacious drama is about how a young girl’s separation from her dog leads to a full-blown canine uprising. Filmed with a cast of 100 dogs and featuring staged scenes of animal cruelty, it won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Palme Dog for best four-legged performance.
Heavenly Shift, 2013
This one’s a black comedy about pumping up the funeral business. It revolves around Milan, a 20 year old half Serbian, half Hungarian, who realises that the ambulance driver and one of the doctors sometimes allow people to die. This illegal euthanasia has a financial side linked to the funeral business.
The Turin Horse, 2011
Béla Tarr’s masterpiece bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable style including long takes, black-and-white photography and almost no dialogue. The film is a meticulous description of the life of the driver of the hansom cab, his daughter and the horse.
