Festival Guide – Day 3 (Sunday, 11 September 2022)
Perhaps the strongest film in this year’s Berlinale Return to Dust depicts the harsh realism of the Chinese countryside with stark honesty through the arranged marriage of two outsiders, but masterfully combines this with a fairytale-like faith in the power of emotions. Rather than lamenting the injustice of the world, the characters support and encourage each other, and in doing so, cope surprisingly well with the problems of everyday life. However, the constant experience of exploitation and poverty affects their existence and questions their hard-earned happiness. The film is screened at CineFest in the competition program. Tickets for the screening are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
The Art of Dubbing… is part of the CineDocs competition program. The film is about the history, past, present and possible future of Hungarian dubbing. It also explores how dubbing and some emblematic Hungarian actors have become part of Hungarian cultural heritage and tradition. The film provides a comprehensive picture of the profession, featuring dozens of well-known actors and professionals, including László Szacsvay, Titanilla Bogdányi, Zoltán Csankó, Gábor Csőre, Attila Epres, Péter Galambos, Oszkár Gáti, Gábor Hevér, Artúr Kálid, József Kerekes, Ervin Nagy, Judit Pogány, András Stohl, Tamara Zsigmond, and one of this year’s CineFest Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Piroska Molnár. Tickets for the screening (which is also the last screening of the film at the festival) are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
The Enchanted Cave in the Open Eye section is a Czech-Slovak-Hungarian co-production family tale (and therefore screened with dubbing) that takes us back to the age of legends and myths. In the depths of the forest lies a magical cave, so rich in salt that for centuries it has provided a livelihood and prosperity for the kingdom. Tickets for the screening (which is also the last screening of the film at the festival) are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
Ever since Jordanian nomads settled in the spectacular landscape of Wadi Rum, they grew dependent on complex water infrastructure. The source is right below their feet, yet they struggle to meet basic needs. In the meantime, deep water extraction feeds private large-scale farms, animates visionary development and secures growing urban population. Bedouins, farmers and city dwellers: they all expect to have a fair share, but digging for “blue gold” unleashes environmental timebomb. Living Water tells the story of power, exploitation and changing ecological circumstances in one of the most water-poor countries in the world. Tickets for the screening (which is also the last screening of the film at the festival) are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
After the death of his girlfriend, Angelina Zeidler, filmmaker Erec Brehmer set out to find traces of their life together. The heart-wrenching Who We Will Have Been, that is part of the CineDocs competition program, is a story about finding oneself after the loss of a loved one, and about love beyond death. Tickets are available for 650 HUF and are best purchased in advance.
This year’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO stars a donkey who experiences the depressive and brutal East, but also the decadent West. EO is at once an imaginative journey, a stunning visual and atmospheric film, a profound drama, a stark social critique and a mirror of the world we have created. The film is part of the feature film competition program. Tickets for the film are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
Director Sándor Csoma’s first feature film, Heights and Depths, is part of this year’s feature competition program. The film is inspired by the story of mountaineer Zsolt Erőss the most popular Hungarian mountaineer ever. During his twenty-three-year career, Erőss conquered te peaks above 8,000 meters and was the first Hungarian to reach the top of Mt Chomolungma. In 2013, he and his mountaineering partner Péter Kiss lost their lives during an expedition on Kangchenjunga The news of his death shocked the whole country, but most people did not think about how his wife, Hilda Sterczer, who was waiting for her husband with their two children, had experienced this loss. The film by director Sándor Csoma stars Hilda Sterczer (played by Emőke Pál) and shows the process of coming to terms with grief. Tickets for the screening (which is also the last screening of the film at the festival) are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
Director Lukas Dhont won the shared Grand Prix (Grand Jury Prize) in Cannes with his film Close, and most critics considered it one of the best films in this year’s competition program. Hungarian audiences will soon decide whether it will be one of the most outstanding films in Miskolc as well, where it is also in the competition program. The drama is about a friendship of tow teenage boys that is broken by bullying. Just like Dhont’s previous production, Girl, this film tackles highly relevant social issues with exceptional sensitivity. Tickets for the film are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
CineFest has always made it a priority to bring the best of American independent film to Hungarian audiences, and this year is no different. A Love Song, which was screened at the and the Berlinale, is a lyrical drama evoking the fleeting beauty of everyday life. With unparalleled tenderness and subtle humor, it portrays Faye (Dale Dickey), a lonely traveler who waits in a deserted Colorado campsite for a man, Lito (Wes Studi), from her distant past. Both have recently lost someone they loved, and now they hope to find solace and a companion in each other. Tickets for the screening (which is also the last screening of the film at the festival) are available for 650 HUF and should be purchased in advance.
