On the third day of the Jameson CineFest we shall pay special attention to two movies: the Hungarian ‘One Day’ won the FIPRESCI prize in Cannes and the South Korean ‘Burning’ was praised to the skies also in Cannes. The German film ‘The Silent Revolution’ is interesting because of it Hungarian reference; it is a movie about how a handful rebellious German teens relate to the Hungarian revolution of 1956.

Vlad Ivanov is one of the most prominent actors of Romanian cinema. He played such memorable roles as the Palme d’or winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or the Cannes Best Director Award winning Graduation (both by Cristian Mungiu), the Berlin Golden Bear winner Child’s Pose (Calin Peter Netzer),Yesterday (Bálint Kenyeres), Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu) or one of the greatest success of recent European cinema Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade). Ivanov plays the leading role in Sunset, and Porumboiu’s and Ivanov’s newest joint project Gomera hits the theatres soon as well. A masterclass with Vlad Ivanov will be at 11am in the Béke room.

At noon in the Uránia room ‘Sunset’ by László Nemes Jeles is screened. Budapest in the summer of 1913, – the last days of peace. Írisz Leiter (Juli Jakab), the orphaned young lady has one dream only: to work in the legendary hat salon formerly owned by her parents. The new owner, Oszkár Brill (Vlad Ivanov), doesn’t want to see her anywhere near the salon and does everything in his power to remove the girl from town. At night a stranger seeks her out asking for her brother whose existence Írisz didn’t even know about. She starts her own investigation leading her to the deepest of the labyrinth of the city. In his new film the Oscar-winning László Nemes Jeles worked mostly with the same crew he did shooting ‘Son of Saul’.

At 2 pm in the Pressburger room we get the repetition of ‘Leave No Trace’ that has been a great success in Cannes this year. Tom (15) lives with her father in the woods on the edge of Portland. Voluntary isolation from “normal society” allows them to create a reality of simple joys untainted by civilization. But one day the surrounding world rears its ugly head, and confrontation is unavoidable. Debra Granik, creator of the acclaimed Winter’s Bone, presents a picture of alternative living that might seem radical but that offers a thought-provoking gloss on Western lifestyles and values.

At the same time in the Béke room we have a chance to participate at a conference under the title “The effect of VHS on the consumption of films”. The era is invoked by Gábor “Cheese” Csizmazia director, Tamás Fekete video store employee, and Gábor “Skip” Gyulai ex-video store employee.  The almost 40-year history of VHS is still the biggest story of success in Hungarian videography. Thanks to VHS, ‘home entertainment’ took on a new significance: ordinary people could own and play their favourite movies any time they wanted without having to adapt to movie and TV programs. The era of temporary movie rentals began, to which Gábor “Cheese” Csizmazia pays tribute with his documentary Volt egyszer egy téka.

At 3 pm the Uránia hosts the screening of ‘Conny Plank – The Potential of Noise’. Konrad „Conny” Plank is undoubtedly one of the most innovative sound designers of his time. The documentary is the search for the person and producer Conny Plank, a journey through music history, a son getting to know his father and a soundtrack that has influenced millions of music fans over three decades.

The first premiere from the competition program comes at 4 pm in the Pressburger room. The true story of a class from East Germany standing up for the Hungarian revolution. In October, 1956 a couple of teenagers travel to West Berlin where they learn about the truth of the events in Budapest. Upon learning the false news that Puskás fall victim of the Soviet intervention they decide to pay tribute to the martyrs with a moment of silence. Soon the Minister of Education arrives to have a little chat with the young “counter-revolutionists”. It is a truly remarkable film focusing on the effects of the revolution of 1956 and on everything the “Eastern bloc” had to experience.

At the same time in the Zukor room the documentary ‘Once Upon Video Rental’ rolls. After 22 years, the Odeon video rental shop operating at the Corvin cinema went out of business in January, 2018. The legendary video rental shop of district VIII shut down and the Odeon rental chain slowly became part of the historical past. For some rental shop ex-employee and enthusiastic film lovers it is a great moment to pay tribute to the whole era of video rentals, that is the golden age of VHS in the 80’s. (Should you choose something else at 4, the repetition is on the same day at 11 pm in the Uránia)

At 4 pm in the Béke room we have the chance to immerse ourselves in the long and especially successful career of Krzysztof Zanussi at a masterclass. Zanussi won the Golden Lion in Venice, the Jury Prize in Cannes, the Golden Leopard in Locarno and has been nominated to the Golden Globe, among many other awards, prizes and honorary titles. Zanussi, one of the major figures of European and international cinema, can only be described in superlatives. He is probably one of the most intellectual, most intelligent and purest directors of our time. After the discussion his film from 1977 ‘Camouflage’ is shown.

At 5 pm one of the films from the competition program ‘Laika’ runs in the Uránia, this time in 3D. On November 3, 1957 Laika became the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Her return home in the Sputnik 2 Soviet spacecraft was never part of the plan however, in this animated puppet musical Laika survives and passes through a black hole and finds her way to the planet Qem. There she gets her first taste of how things are when man isn’t the lord of creation.

At 6:30 pm in the Pressburger room we have the chance to watch the acclaimed ‘One Day’. Zsófia Szilágyi’s ‘One Day’ premiered in Cannes in the Semaine de la Critique program from where it returned with the prestigious FIPRESCI-prize. The film is based on a letter by a letter from one of the director’s friends. In this letter the mother of three children gives an account of one day in her life. The thesis to be proven was there: could a housewife be the classical protagonist of a feature film? The answer is an unequivocal yes, which will be proven by the film and the filmmakers as well at the Hungarian premiere of the movie. Late at night we have an afterparty in the Nagy-Avas (Rácz sor 370.) with DJ Astro.

At the same time in the Zukor room we can watch Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film ‘Shoplifters’ – the best of this year’s perfectionalism in Cannes, i.e. the film winning the Palme d’or. It is true. Kore-eda is one of the best Japanese filmmakers. A productive master who has already created something perfect with the ‘Nobody Knows’ from 2004. Once again he shows us a dysfunctional family; the member of which are poor, suffer from compulsive disorder and has no logical reason to steal all kinds of things from malls. The grandma has quite a good pension, the mom works in a laundry, the man is a “house-husband”, taking care of the young boys. Later on they decide to give home to a young girl as well, who has been beaten by her parents: Slowly we gain some insight into the life of this peculiar family in which, as it turns out, none of the members are related by blood. It is a family of choices – if you wish so. Obviously the idyll cannot remained untouched for long and the obligatory drama arrives. Kore-eda proves again that the Japanese culture handles emotions with a sensitivity that can only be envied by the West.

At 7 pm the Uránia hosts the third short feature selection with German, Finnish, French, South Korean and Spanish films.

In the Béke screening room an Academy award-winning classic thriller, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ starts at 7 pm. The movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins is followed by a discussion with Csaba Tóth, deputy editor in chief of VOX magazine and Virág Zomborácz, screenwriter on the crux of success in cinema, which is a good story. Great books, interesting stories that have already proven themselves in front of readers tend to find their directors easily and end up being adapted to film. The (Script)writing program at the Jameson CineFest looks into the process of creation: from turning a book into script, filming the scenes and, finally, bringing the words alive in the screen.

At 9 pm, in the Pressburger room starts the screening of ‘Burning’. The Korean master Lee Chang Dong’s breathtaking masterpiece is an adaptation of Murakami Haruki’s ‘Barn Burning’. Jong-su, a part-time worker, bumps into the spectacularly beautiful Hae-mi, who used to live in the same neighborhood. Hae-mi asks him to look after her cat while she’s on a trip to Africa. When Hae-mi comes back, she introduces Ben, a mysterious and super rich guy she met in Africa, and there comes a mysterious love triangle. One day, Ben visits Jong-su’s with Hae-mi and confesses his own secret hobby. ‘Burning has premiered in the competition program of Cannes Film Festival and the critics went wild for it.

‘The Lost Grandpa’ starts at 9 pm in the Uránia. An amateur filmmaker living in the 1920’s and 1930’s dies without any trace of his family and inheritors. One day a man shows up and claims he spotted his mother in the films the mysterious man recorded, and says his mother was secretive about his grandfather and their family. They start an investigation, and slowly, the 20th century Jewish family’s story unfolds. The once familyless grandchild gets closer to not only his lost grandpa, but his other relatives, too.

If we missed it yesterday, we now can watch the longest movie of the Festival at 9 pm in the Zukor room. The more than three-hour movie ‘Wild Pear Tree’ by the Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been part of the program in Cannes not so long ago. Sinan returns home after graduation. The arrogant youth longs to be a writer, and does everything to fulfill his dreams. He has no interest in other people’s opinions and advice. Convinced of his uniqueness, he disdains all others – most of all his own father, a schoolteacher nearing retirement. As he tries to climb the social ladder, Sinan begins to realize that perhaps he is not that different and maybe he won’t be such a good writer.

At 10 pm in the Béke room we can watch the second selection of short features with two Canadian, two Spanish, one Maxican and one Hungarian film on the menu.

At 10:15, as part of the CineClassics program, a real treat awaits us. The 17 minutes movie ‘The Death of Earth’ is a real rarity. An astronomer realizes that a meteor is about to hit the Earth. Together with his friends they build a rocket to feel our planet. The film debuted at the International Amateur Film Festival in Paris, in 1933. Later on it started its European tour – unfortunately. During the tour, at a festival the only copy of the film was destroyed, only some cut-out scenes remained. This short but exclusive compilation is made of these scenes.