From Emeric Pressburger to Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Bartók

From Emeric Pressburger to Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Bartók

2024.08.12. 10:20

From 6 to 14 September, the 20th CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival offers an exciting documentary program in addition to the feature films. This year’s CineDocs selection includes films about Imre Pressburger, born in Miskolc, and another film legend who revolutionized filmmaking technology, Leni Riefenstahl, Béla Bartók’s unknown journey to Turkey, and the writer István Nemere’s untiring work ethic. In addition to the filmed life’s journeys, the films take us around the world to the Swedish forests, the Georgian mountains and the bustling streets of Cuba.

Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese first encountered the films of Englishman Michael Powell and Miskolc-born Emeric Pressburger as a child and has been a fan ever since. In Made in England: the films of Powell and Pressburger, coming from the Berlinale, he is interviewed by four-time BAFTA-winning veteran documentary filmmaker David Hinton. Scorsese, who is also active in film restoration and preservation, draws on a wealth of archival material to enthusiastically explore the decades of the duo’s highly fruitful collaboration.

Riefenstahl provides an insight into Leni Riefenstahl’s artistic heritage and her complex relationship with the Nazi regime. Director Andres Veiel has been given unprecedented access to Riefenstahl’s personal archive of 700 boxes of footage and has used them to create a more complex portrait of the controversial filmmaker than ever before. The world premiere of the film will take place just days before Cinefest, at the Venice International Film Festival.

Zoltán Török, the creator of the highly successful Wild Horses – a Tale from the Puszta and Wild Hungary, has been living in Sweden for years with his wife, two daughters and a dog. On regular hikes they explore the colorful wildlife of the changing wilderness, and now they invite viewers to join them on their most exciting excursions. In addition to showing the wildlife of the Nordic countries, from seals to moose, My Sweden – A Changing Wilderness raises awareness among children and parents about the love and protection of nature. The film is narrated by Piroska Molnár, the recipient of the 18th CineFest Lifetime Achievement Award.

The famous Filipino director Lav Diaz engages in a conversation with a chatty Cuban taxi driver while driving through the streets of Cuba. During the making of Taxibol, director Tommaso Santambrogio asked Lav, this time a reporter, to track down a mysterious former general who fled the Philippines after the end of the Marcos dictatorship and, as an old man, is still hiding without being brought to justice.

Five years ago, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter personally accompanied Space Dogs to CineFest. Now their latest film, Dreaming Dogs, photographed from an animal’s point of view, has been added to the programme. A group of strays – seven dogs and a woman – live in the shadows of Moscow. The film blurs the boundaries of interdependence and the animal-human relationship.

Coming from the Sarajevo Film Festival, the Georgian Giorgi Parkosadze’s Requiem for Hot Summer Days stars Guri and her mother Sonata. They have spent their entire lives in a remote mountain gorge. Through the family’s daily life, we get to know this world, far from urban civilization, along with the processes of traditional farming, beekeeping and cheese-making.

Five Turkish gymnasts qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with unprecedented success, but then an unexpected turn of events occurred: the COVID-19 pandemic caused the postponement of the Games. Chasing the Olympic dream all their lives, they remain determined to win the first Olympic medal in gymnastics in Turkey’s history. This superhuman effort is precisely documented in the Turkish film Eclipse.

Kálmán Kázsmér’s dramatized documentary In Bartók’s Footsteps follows Béla Bartók’s journey to Turkey in 1936. The film takes us from Istanbul to Adana, and the similarities between Turkish and Hungarian folk music become clear.

István Nemere has been in the business for 50 years, during which time he has published nearly 800 books, making him a world record holder. Sándor Szalma’s biographical documentary István Nemere: I’ll Write As Long As I Live focuses not only on the author’s work, but also reveals the private life behind it, his relationship with nature and animals, his philosophy of life and his romantic side.

Soon, the films in the official CineFest feature film competition program will be announced and tickets will go on sale.

      |