Olympic dream in Transylvania
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
It is scarcely known nowadays that in the second half of the 1930s, as a founding member of the International Olympic Committee, Hungary could rightfully hope to host the Olympic Games.
By the Second Vienna Award on 30 August 1940 almost 50 percent of the territories allocated to Romania after the First World War was annexed to Hungary. Areas thus retrieved provided many opportunities for winter sports, and this was the moment when the Hungarian state embraced the plan of the establishment of a European-standard winter sports centre which could host the Winter Olympics.
Borsafüred in the Radna Mountains was designated as the location of the “Hungarian National Winter Sports Centre”. The plans were inspired by the ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where Germany successfully hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics.
Hungarian sports authorities had grand visions: all the facilities of the “Hungarian Garmisch” were designed to be bigger and more modern compared to those built by the Germans.
Our film presents the idea and the plans of the unrealised Transylvanian Winter Olympics, and also Borsafüred, with the facilities that still stand today.
Director: Nóra Szarka
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Csaba Polgár
3D photo animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási
Editor: Péter Mórocz
Year of production: 2022
Hungarian Movie Festival 2023 – Best Short Documentary Award Nominee: Olympic dream in Transylvania
JANKOVICS – The history of the Jankovics family
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
No such film has ever made about Marcell Jankovics – the renowned film director, cultural historian and honoured “Artist of the Nation” – which not only covers his life but also the path of the Jankovics family. Yet the story of the Jankovics family is a parabolic tale of Hungarian history over the past 100 years.
Although in our film members of the Jankovics family are the ones who suffer by the events, many others have experienced similar humiliations over the past 100 years. These events of life – consciously or unconsciously – had an impact on Marcell Jankovics. Like the thousands of people who carry the traumas of their parents and grandparents in some way, whether they are aware of it or not.
Based on the books “Húsz esztendő Pozsonyban” by dr. Marcell Jankovics, and “Lékiratok” by Marcell Jankovics, the script is written by Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director: Szonja Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Máté Dobray
3D photo animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási
Editor: Péter Mórocz
Cast of reconstructed scenes: Tünde Boldizsár, Eszter Földes, Bálint Adorjáni, Nimród Balázs-Magyar, Péter Bárnai, Zoltán Berzsenyi, Álmos Előd, Bálint Merán, Ákos Solymosi, Zsolt Végh
Year of production: 2021
Hungarian Movie Festival 2022 – Best Short Documentary Award: Jankovics
Liberator
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
A journey from the shadows of the prison bars towards the monk’s cell with a Roma boy, Attila, a former drug addict and crook. Our film focuses on the inner and outer journey of Attila, his spiritual alteration and growth, which can throw up questions in everybody, bringing the viewer closer to herself. Attila’s life story raises questions of vital importance, while the future holds many uncertainties.
Director: Gergely Hajnal
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: András Petrik
Cast: Attila Lólé, monks of the Benedictine abbeys of Pannonhalma and Bakonybél, and many others
Year of production: 2021
Hungarian Movie Festival 2023 – Best Long Documentary Award: Liberator
Greti’s World
Short film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
Gréti is a twelve years old girl, who’s entering a new stage of her life when she starts her studies in high school. On an average school day, she makes a video for her friend, recording the boys of her new class playing football, when one of them, Csabi clumsily falls. Maja, a dominant girl in their class notices Gréti filming. Gréti shows the video to Maja, and later sends it to her. Maja shares the video about Csabi in a group chat, and it becomes a meme within the group. The kids start a challenge, and Csabi quickly becomes the target of the group.
Written and directed by: Virág Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Gábor Ezra Tausz
Animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási, István Bejó
Sound: Márk Puszta
Editor: Csilla Zsély
Cast: Emma Bercovici, Luca Varga, András Máté Nagy, Lolita Vogl
Year of production: 2020
Deer
Short film
Anna and Péter head to a medical conference to a countryside hotel, where Péter is going to give a presentation. They plan to spend the weekend in the hotel after the official programme. Just before they would arrive, as they are passing by a forest road, from their car Anna spots a man slapping a girl. She is shocked by the sudden act of violence, while Peter claims he has not seen anything as he was busy with driving. Eventually they turn around to check what has happened.
Written and directed by: István Hevesi
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Co-producer: László Józsa, Rajčić Rea, Judit Romwalter
Director of photography: Gábor Ezra Tausz
Sound: Márk Puszta
Cast: Barna Bokor, Andrea Varga, David Yengibarian, Sára Törley-Havas
Year of production: 2020
18. Asiana Short Film Festival 2020 – Official Competition
Train Schedule
Short film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
The grandfather has suffered a stroke and his left side is paralyzed. They make a decision with his son Dezső, and his daughter-in-law Bea, that they take advantage of this unfortunate illness. The family bribes the doctor not to report the case and they take Grandpa to the railway track where he could ‘accidentally’ be hit. He is not able to use his left hand and leg anyway, why not have it cut? The insurance money could make all their dreams come true like a separate house, a car, buying an upholstery workshop. Dezső and his family have had enough of living on the edge. Their fate must hold more than that for them. Grandpa could make such a sacrifice for the family. Or should he not?
Written and directed by: Ervin Sallai
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Gábor Bárány, Arthur Kulcsár, Endre Shwindl
Sound: Roland Heidrich, Ottó Oláh
Editor: Gábor Bárány
Cast: János Bán, Bálint Bán, Nóra Trokán
Year of production: 2019
Hungarian Movie Festival 2021 – Best Male Actor Nominee: János Bán
The Hungarian Olympiad
Documentary film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
Only a few know, that the idea of the modern time Olympic Games is not connected with the French baron, Coubertin but the Hungarian Lajos Vermes. The ancient greek Olympic Games were not revived by the French Pierre de Coubertin first, but a landowner in Palics (former Hungarian Kingdom, now belongs to Serbia) called Lajos Vermes. He organized the games in Palics between 1880 and 1914, which were referred to as the Hungarian Olympiad in the Hercules Sport Paper in 1885. The Palics games have lived for 34 years with international participants as a special alternative to the International Olympic Games which started in 1896.
Director: Ákos Zámborszki
Silver Javelin Award – Best Sports Documentary, Hungary
Crusaders of the Past and Present
Documentary film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
From the moment Muhammad found the religion Islam, it has been in a constant battle with “The Rest of the World”, and as such with Christianity too. Muslims always considered Christians one of “the people of the book”. During their expansion, Christians, if they paid tax, were not enemies to them. However, there is an endless conflict between the people of the
two religions.
The religion, originated in Arabia, started its expansion right after its birth and eventually reached the Iberian Peninsula. Christians fought for Jerusalem for decades; then due to the rise of the Turks, the Christian-Muslim war moved to European territories. It resulted in a long, heroic war for us, Hungarians, too in which we literally saved Europe from the Islamic conquest.
In the 21 st century, a new Islamic conquest started: fundamentalist terrorism hidden in illegal migration. It is a question, whether there will be enough of “crusaders” to stop the present day “jihad” which would completely reshape Europe’s image and culture. Our film is in search of that while it shows the tension of the last half millennium from the point of view of Muslims and Christians. We made special emphasis on the late crusade of the Hungarian King András II.
Director: Ferenc Varsányi
Tomato Soup with Alphabet Pasta
Animation series (13 ep)
While “Tomato Soup with Alphabet Pasta” is primarily an animated series for children, it is also multigenerational. Believe it or not, in school cafeterias today, children still eat the same foods their parents ate. The basis for the cartoons is the Kompánia Troupe’s musical adaptations of the poems of János Lackfi. It’s not our goal to make the children like the food, but to joke with them about it, play with them, and maybe help them sneak a second serving.
Director: Bálint Benkovits – Balázs Sarkadi Nagy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Based on a children’s poems: János Lackfi
Co-production partner: Derendo Animation
Year of Production: 2016-2017
Wellness
Short film
Wellness tells the story of the relationship of two pensioner lady, Teri and Ilona. They have been friends since decades and they’re spending their vacation together in a wellness hotel paid by Ilona’s son. Despite the seemingly ideal situation, they cannot really enjoy themselves: the air conditioning in their room goes wrong and later one of Ilona’s former colleague turns up as well.
The film follows a day of their stay, when the ladies try to get the most out of the vacation. With their constant activity they try to suppress their own anxiety and during the day some unspoken secrets come to light as well. By the end of the day their friendship, based on habits and mutual concealment, reaches to a point that makes both of them reconsider what they know about each other and themselves.
Director: Virág Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriter: Virág Szabó
Based on the short story of: Krisztina Tóth
Director of photography: Gábor Tausz
Sound design: Máté Péterffy
Editing: Csilla Zsély
Cast: Ibolya Csonka, Márta Egri, Zsolt Kovács
Year of Production: 2016
23. Sarajevo Film Festival, 2017 – Official Competition
Uppsala Short Film Festival, 2017 – Official Competition
Weekend
thriller
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó, Ferenc Pusztai
Screenwriters: Áron Mátyássy, Péter Gál, Csaba Tóth
Dramaturge: Éva Zabezsinszkij
Cameraman: Márk Győri
Editing: Márton Gothár
Production designer: János Szabolcs
Sound: Gábor Balázs, Tamás Dévényi
Cast: Dorka Gryllus, Kornél Simon, Tamás Lengyel, Teréz Vass, Attila Árpa
Year of production: 2014-2015
Co-production partner: KMH Film
Víkend is about a weekend turning into tragedy in Transylvania. Three confident and successful hotshots from Budapest, István the building contractor, (Tamás Lengyel), Márta, his lawyer (Dorka Gryllus) and László, her husband (Kornél Simon) take off for a hunting trip to celebrate a victorious trial – that ended with exemption on the first degree, arriving to a small remote village surrounded by mountains.
Instead of relaxation they experience a dark weekend, full of secrets. Little by little the truth comes to light: not everybody are what they seem to be, they all lie, are manipulative and selfish, using the others to achieve their own goals.
HSC Golden Eye 2015 – Márk Győri: Weekend – Award for Best Cinematographer
Wish to be a Red Indian
Experimental short film
The Wish to be a Red Indian is the story of Franz Kafka’s last love and last friendship. Kafka met the last love of his life, Dora Diamant, a girl of Polish origin and twenty years younger than him when he was forty and less than a year before he died. They moved in together in Berlin. It was just a few years before when he met his last friend, the young medic Róbert Klopstock from Dombóvár in the High Tatras. Kafka, as Klaus Mann describes pathetically “breathed his last in his arms”. Dora Diamant and Róbert Klopstock lived through and were sticking with him through his last weeks, took care of him until his last moment in a sanatorium near Vienna. This is the place where Kafka calls on Klopstock: “Kill me, or else you are a murderer!”
The film retraces their story of love and friendship with particular visual techniques and with narration of Kafka’s thoughts expressed in private conversations excluded from public. His interesting reasoning also come to life. In a film without actors the images are the “visual tracking”, a process of dialectical play between image and narrative, the reminiscences told by Dora Diamant and Róbert Klopstock alternately.
Director: Tibor Szemző
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: András Forgách, Tibor Szemző
Cameraman: Tibor Szemző
Composer: Tibor Szemző
Editing: Andreas Schlichthuber
Cast: Barbara Massey, Andor Lukáts
Year of Production: 2014
NMHH Media Council – Tibor Szemző: Wish to be a Red Indian – Huszárik Zoltán Award
23. Alter-Native Film Festival, Targu Mures, Romania – The Ministry of Culture’s Award
Curse 3.
TV series of 10 episodes
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: Péter Gál, Edit Zakál, Zsuzsanna Szászi
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Szilvia Papp, Péter Politzer
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Kata Pálfi, Alexandra Németh, Tibor Gáspár, Bálint Adorjáni, Edit Balázsovits, Eszter Földes, József Kádas, Benett Vilmányi, Bence Tasnádi, Tamás Rétfalvi, Niké Kurta, Gergely Kovács
Year of Production: 2013
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
HSC Golden Eye 2013 – Márk Győri: The Curse 3 – Award for Best Cinematographer
The Brass Band Runs Amok
Feature and Tv family film
In the school of Kukucs town an experimental class started with the lead of teacher Riminyák. He is a strict pedagogue who follows the Prussian education principles, able to assign everyone on the class list to a recitation twice during one single class. And this is just one of his many small weaknesses! No wonder that under the leadership of the resourceful Szinyák the kids highjack the school bus and the whole class invades the forest. They move in to the empty Russian barrack and shortly after they discover having someone to accompany them: Igor, the Russian soldier who somehow remained here. Igor takes over the command and trains the youngsters very toughly. The kids soon realize that life was perhaps easier with teacher Riminyák. They start negotiating with the parents and the school through the local TV news, setting up the condition of Riminyák’s dismissal.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: István Csukás, Áron Mátyássy
DOP: Máté Herbai
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár
Cast: Zoltán Schneider, Zalán Makranczi, Gábor Hevér, Frigyes Hollósi, Béla Fesztbaum, Simon Szemző, Tamás Sipos, Bence Rajcsányi, Kada Haála, Máté Szmeskó, Virág Koller, Andrea Roszik, Debóra Rónaszéki, Richárd Balogh, Achilles Horváth, Pál Kocsis, András Balogh
Year of Production: 2012-2014
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
Curse 2.
Tv series of 9 episodes
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: Péter Gál, Edit Zakál, Zsuzsanna Szászi
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Zoltán Kovács, Szilvia Papp
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Alexandra Németh, Richárd Balogh, János Bán, Benett Vilmányi, Bence Tasnádi, József Kádas, Edit Balázsovits, Annamária Fodor, Szabolcs Thuróczy
Year of Production: 2011
Co-production partner: Tv Com, MEC Hungary
P.S. – Please Sir!
Tv film
Frigyes Karinthy, the celebrated writer undergoes a brain surgery in Stockholm on the 5th of May 1936. During the operation a 16 years old young man appears in the theater in whom Karinthy seems to recognize his onetime himself. The young Frici invites the writer who is drifting between life and death into a strange world. All those childhood memories come alive that he has chronicled earlier in his novel Please Sir!. Yet, in the subjectively perceived closeness to death these nostalgic reminiscences appear now in a different refraction.
Karinthy is tottering worriedly in this inverted world while Frici falls in love, mingles into conflict with his form master, fails Hungarian class, it can be expected that he has to face military school. Finally it turns out that he is a natural born writer. One question remains open: is Karinthy’s surgery successful and could he return to the world of the living ?
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó, István Koller
Screenwriter: Norbert Köbli
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Zoltán Kovács
Cast: Giacomello Roberto, Benett Vilmányi, Csaba Pindroch, Géza Hegedűs D., Frigyes Hollósi, Gábor Hevér, Brigitta Csepregi
Year of Production: 2010
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
Curse
TV series of 4 episodes
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Gergely Fodor, András Pusztay
Screen play writers: Péter Gál, Zsuzsanna Szászi, Csaba Tóth, Edit Zakál
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Áron Mátyássy
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Kata Pálfi, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Tilo Werner, Annamária Fodor, Alexandra Németh, Benett Vilmányi, Tibor Gáspár
Year of Production: 2009
41. Hungarian Film Week 2010 – The Curse – Award for Best TV Film
Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2010 – The Curse – Seal of approval
The Pierre Woodman story
Documentary
Director: Péter Szajki, András Kovács M.
Producer: Gergely Fodor, Tamás Zákonyi S, Norbet Köbli
DOP: Ábris Gosztola, Péter Rudolf Kiss
Editing: András Kovács M., Álmos Ozváry
Cast: Pierre Woodman
Year of Production: 2009
Co-production partner: HBO
Theatre in Szentendre
Documentary
Director: István Szakály
Producer: Gergely Fodor
Screenwriter: István Szakály
DOP: Sándor Kiss
Editing Reporter: Ingrid Hutterer
Editing: Sándor Kiss
Year of Production: 2009
Born Loser
TV series of 12 episodes
Director: Péter Bartos, Márton Szirmai, Barnabás Tóth, Gábor Fischer, Márton Vécsei, György Pálfi, Dániel Erdélyi
Producer: Gergely Fodor, Péter Gál, Judit Minda
Screenwriters: Bálint Hegedűs, Gábor Krigler, Balázs Lovas
Cameraman: Ábris Gosztola, Márton Miklauzic, András Gondár, Balázs Szügyi, Gergely Pohárnok, Balázs Márton, György Réder
Year of Production: 2008-2009
Co-production partner: HBO
BuSho Festival 2009 – Ace poker (Born Loser) – Award for Best Comedy
Nexus
Scientific Documentary
Director: Csaba Szekeres
Producer: Gergely Fodor
Screenwriter: Csaba Szekeres
Cameraman: Csaba Szekeres, Sándor Várkonyi
Year of Production: 2008
40. Hungarian Film Week 2009 – Csaba Szekeres: Nexus – Kollányi Ágoston Best Director’s prize
