Hungarian-related films at this year’s CineFest

The 21st CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival will showcase the latest Hungarian-related films.

Hasan Hadi‘s film The President’s Cake won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes and the Audience Award in the Directors’ Fortnight section. The Hungarian connection to this Iraqi writer-director’s tragicomedy, which is part of the CineFest Competition Program, is that a Hungarian team was responsible for the film’s sound design: Hasan Hadi sought out sound engineer Tamás Zányi because he was greatly impressed by Son of Saul. As Zányi said, “Noémi Veronika Szakonyi and Máté Vincze, who had studied with Hasan in New York, helped with the arrangements. The film was shot last spring in Iraq, and the sound was recorded on location by our very talented Mexican colleague Jonathan Ayala Colón. After editing the film, we began post-production in September with Hasan present in Budapest at our Saint Audio Studio. All of the Arabic dialogue editing, noise reduction, and sound design was done here, with the help of Dorka Mező, Tamás Székely, and Tamás Beke, who I work with regularly.”

Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or with Titane a few years ago, also had her previous film in the CineFest Competition Program, so it’s almost a given that her latest, Alpha, also from Cannes, will be shown in Hungary for the first time here. Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old girl (Mélissa Boros), lives with her single mother (Golshifteh Farahani). When Alpha comes home from school one day with a tattoo on her arm, their whole world collapses, bringing to the surface their deepest conflicts and fears. The film has a Hungarian connection in that the lead role is played by Mélissa Boros, a 19-year-old French-Hungarian actress and model who not only speaks Hungarian well but is also a big fan of Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó.

Kirill Serebrennikov, a Russian artist who was under house arrest in his homeland for a long time and now lives in Berlin, has made a film about the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Coming from the Cannes Premiere section to the CineFest Competition Program, The Disappearance of Josef Mengele presents the story of the war criminal from a rarely seen perspective. Actress Annamária Láng plays an important role in the film. In addition to her stage work as a member of the Burgtheater company in Vienna, she is known for her roles in Máté Fazekas’s Eviction and Kornél Mundruczó’s Evolution.

More information about the festival’s program will be available in the coming weeks.

CineFest
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