The Fifth Seal

The Fifth Seal 1976

8.00

In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever.

1976

Twilight

Twilight 1990

7.00

In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emerges is not a crime story, but a harrowing venture through the darkness of the human soul.

1990

Homo Novus

Homo Novus 1990

1

A divorced young math teacher is tormented by her high school students.

1990

Diary for My Father and My Mother

Diary for My Father and My Mother 1990

6.20

This story follows a young student, who is orphaned as she grows to adulthood in the shadow of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Coming from the Communist intelligentsia, she sees her friends and family react differently. Her lover, a married factory manager, supports the patriots and later assists fellow workers in staging a strike. Meanwhile her sister and others express anger at being forced from their homes during the revolution and continue to express a hatred for the rebels afterwards. But in the end they realize that for all people, real life is not possible after the revolt and its brutal suppression by the Soviets and their collaborators.

1990

Daughters of Fortune

Daughters of Fortune 1999

4.40

A story of a mother who had to change her profession from a teacher to a high class prostitute to make a living.

1999

Passion

Passion 1998

6.90

A woman and her lover plot to kill her older husband.

1998

Time Stands Still

Time Stands Still 1982

6.50

A Budapest high school in the beginning of the 1960s. Dini suffers the torments of adolescence. His father had to leave Hungary after the uprise in 1956, and since then Dini's mother has had to take care of her two sons on her own. A friend of Dini’s father, Bodor, is released from prison and moves in with them. Dini and his brother are far from happy about this intrusion on their family life.

1982

Abandoned

Abandoned 2001

6.36

Áron is a happy child in his family. But at some point things take a different turn, and his mother starts to lose her health rapidly. As this happens, the man in charge decides what's best for Áron without consulting the young boy's opinion, and the boy finds himself thrown out of his warm home into an orphanage in the woods. He's utterly displeased by what's happening, without knowing he has yet to face much worse...

2001

Junk Movie

Junk Movie 1992

6.20

It is 1989, the year of the demise of socialism in eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the one theme of Junk Movie does not refer to this historical moment of high ideals, quite the contrary, the wild, burlesque of a motif-mozaic seems merely to stick it’s tongue out at the arrogant players of politics who have their heads stuck in the clouds. The film rudely points out the mystery and unapproachability surrounding the every-day existence of politics. The scene is a greasy, falling-down block of a pub called the Gólya and its immediate surroundings.

1992

Cantata

Cantata 1963

6.60

A young doctor undergoes a spiritual crisis when he returns to his rural home.

1963

To See Naples and...

To See Naples and... 1972

1

Szegedi Anna, a lawyer having just arrived back from Naples wants to divorce his husband, also a lawyer, because since a hot night she has only been thinking of Laczkó, the handsome businessman.

1972

The Fortress

The Fortress 1979

6.50

A World War II-style "war game" setting the wealthy customers against skilled mercenaries goes awry when the simulated war gets too real.

1979

Húsz évre egymástól

Húsz évre egymástól 1962

1

A father tries to deal with his troubled son who is involved in a hit-and-run accident.

1962

25 Fireman's Street

25 Fireman's Street 1973

5.40

On one hot summer night, the residents of a Hungarian apartment house slated for demolition restlessly revisit their haunted pasts as they face an uncertain future. In a gently turning kaleidoscope of dream imagery, regret-laden nostalgia and painstakingly intimate detail, the looming wrecking ball pales in significance to the accumulated experiences each dreamer revisits. Pre-war prejudice, occupying Nazis and Stalinist deprivations all come and go as each tenant’s backward glance yields moments of aching sensuality, infectious exuberance and catastrophic loss.

1973

Csutak and the Grey Horse

Csutak and the Grey Horse 1961

1

Csutak is just a pain in the neck, the little boy is even excluded from play by his mates. Vacation is spent lonely until one day he sneaks the woman haulier's old, shabby horse, a creature that would be better off in a slaughterhouse, out with himself. Possessing the animal is the key to the children's gang. They all try to find a place for the horse.

1961

Belated Full Moon

Belated Full Moon 1996

6.00

The story largely centers on a grandfather who finds himself deeply depressed by the dramatic downward turns Bulgarian society has taken. The changes of the past half century have created a deep communications gap between generations and he is unable to communicate with his troubled son. Nor is the old man able to do much to help his grandson who is making his first forays into criminal life, blaming it all on his mother who admits she is incapable of loving him. The grandfather tires of life with the bleak family and so goes to an old folks home. But that proves repressive, so he and a couple of friends leave to enact a money-making scheme. When that fails, the old man finds himself alone and destitute on the rough streets of Sofia where his despairing eyes witness the further ruination of his homeland.

1996

Long Twilight

Long Twilight 1997

6.83

A tale about an independent-minded university professor who leaves her family to travel across the countryside to visit a friend.

1997

Ruthless Times

Ruthless Times 1992

1

Hungary, end of World War II. Five Hungarian soldiers desert their troop which has been directed to Germany. They are escaping with the help of a stamp and unfilled travelling warrants, trying to survive until the war ends.

1992