János Zsombolyai

On 27th July 1986, British stadium rock band Queen broke new ground by playing for the first time in Hungary, a country which was still under a communist dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain.

8.6/10
8.6%

Dini goes to Sweden illegally and abandons his fiancée, Mari. After several months a young Finnish businessman called Pekka arrives in Budapest, carrying a letter and package from Dini. The sympathetic Pekka is judged by the friends of Mari to be suitable for the task of a nominal marriage, by which Mari could get out legally to Dini.

6.2/10

Hungary in the 1930s. The world suddenly changes around the peaceful office-clerk and regular, average petit-burgeois Kornél Cassius. Friends and relatives turn up in his home, who soon establish themselves there and even take the upper hand. They continue to arrive in increasing numbers, and turn the well-known objects and patterns of relationships upside down.

Three thirtysomething chemical scientists, Laci, Gyuri and Kati celebrate the success of their development program before New Year's Eve with drinking for several days. But the morning of New Year's Eve does not bring the expected recognition, because the nice, bald, old director is replaced by a young, bald, but disagreeable one. In a sodden atmosphere it becomes clear that everybody has an axe to grind in the informative discussions.

6.7/10

At the station of Almamellék the semaphore turns red unexpectedly and the conductor shows a stowaway - with no money nor ticket - off the train. The stowaway has to undergo a serious and long investigation that tries to uncover the reasons for his "deed". In the meantime he can watch, like a spectator in a movie-theatre, how Kerek József, the strutting stationmaster rules his ridiculous empire through office bureaucracy, indifference, servility and negligence.

7.6/10

Istvan Varju a.k.a. Kanya is a track driver. He drives alone on the roads and listens to the radio. We're In the middle of seventies, the radio broadcasts hungarian beat music. He is convinced that interesting and significant events in the life happen on the roads, so we should go, go and go in order not to miss something.

6.5/10

A musical farce about women in the canning factory. The pretty Brigitta tries to commit suicide, because Laci left her, pregnant, but her mates save her.

4.9/10

This sensitive and ironic film points up two girl-faces: Vera is happy, but cold, while Borika is tired, but warm-hearted.

The film is based on a true story. Jakus, managing director of a scooter-factory suddenly resigns, since he disagrees with his superiors in the ministry on several points. Disregarding the attacks of his family and friends, he returns to his original job and becomes a welder, which is not very easy because of his records.

5.4/10

In this naturalistic satire enriched with burlesque, Boróka, the haircutting artist once cuts a hair so, that the customer has to be shaved bald. Sajtár Dezső wants to kill the barber, who feels to be a victim himself immediately. In his anguish he mixes up his apartment, his wife and everything in the uniform world of the block of flats and like a maniac, tries to find after his pursuer. They find each other at a neurological clinic.

7.4/10

This Hungarian film chronicles the slow deterioration in the life of Juli, a farmer's wife. As the countryside grows ever more deserted because people are moving to towns or large collective farms, she spends more and more time alone. Despite her best efforts to appreciate her situation, her despair grows. The loneliness is briefly interrupted when she and her husband take in an old woman and care for her, but the woman dies. Shortly after her son visits, she is killed in an accident which may have been a suicide. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

6.8/10

The events of the story take place in the outskirts of working class people in the early nineteen fifties. Makra, a skilled worker in a factory, suddenly comes to close quarters with everything around him because his environment condemns and ridicules him for protecting a woman when his drunk fellows were going to rape her after his bachelor party.

7.1/10

Mózes Imre, the quality inspector of a big factory in Budapest loses his job overnight because he did not obey the director's instructions and refused some bad products of the company. When he brings the case before a court his arguments are not really appreciated. The director, however, recognises that, to a certain extent, Mózes is right and lets him re-enter as a head of a smaller operational section.

4.6/10

The film describes the general situation and conditions of the middle-aged intellectuals.

6.8/10

A 1970 film.

7/10

The main character of this film reminiscent of political writing is Laci, the young and ambitious factory worker. He lives with his brother's family. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape from his native country and the prison sentence which follows it he gets employed by Pray, the progressive thinker, at a newly established computer centre. It is here that Laci learns to know Anna, the new-leftist university student, daughter of the general manager. Tóth, although he does not favour their relationship, does not oppose it either.

7.5/10

Known as the best satire about communism, banned for over a decade in Hungary. 'The Witness' has become a cult classic, well received by critics and general audiences when it was finally released outside of Hungary. 'The Witness' takes place during the height of the Rákosi Era, which was closely modeled after the ruthless and brutal Stalin regime. The film follows the life of an ordinary dike keeper, József Pelikán, who has been caught for illegally slaughtering his pig, Dezsõ. Instead of doing hard time for his "heinous" crime, Pelikán is elevated into an important position, generally reserved for the communist elite. His new benefactor, the mysterious Comrade Virág, is reluctant to reveal the real reason behind Pelikán's preferential treatment. Thus, begins Pelikán's hilarious adventure deep within the "sophisticated" communist society... Until one day, when he gets called for to return the "favour" by falsely testifying against his long-time friend in a mock-up show trial.

8.7/10

This film set at the end of the sixties is based on a true story. Laci and the divorced Klári decide to commit suicide, since neither's parents give them shelter, they have no place to sleep, no decent job and no future. Béla, who lives on stealing cars, joins them He has a gun. On their way to Visegrád Klári takes her last chance and calls on her ex-lover, but Bandi does not give a damn. After drawing lots, the gun goes off and Laci falls down dead. After an apathetic love-making Klári and Béla decide to emigrate. However, they are relieved when stopped by the border sentries.

6.7/10

The dramatically dense film takes place in workers' surrounding in the sixties. It raises the newspaper article serving as the basis for the short story to be a model: in a plastic factory fire breaks out causing enormous damages.

5.8/10

Komora, a young painter and his friends, Mari, a teacher, and the elderly doctor, Szabó, buy a barrack-building situated at the foot of the stone mine of Badacsony. Earlier, the placeserved as an internment camp. Now, they intend to establish a camp with workshop sessions for fine artists. Mari and the painter fall in love.

6.6/10

The family travels to Zebegény for their holiday, and the following day the seventeen-year-old Vera also leaves for Lake Balaton to pick peaches in a voluntary camp there. Her boyfriend, Gyuri, goes to a film shooting. Gyuri would like to make the best of the day in the absence of parents, but Vera refuses him. She becomes jealous at once, however, when she discovers Gyuri's previous girlfriend in the shooting team.

6.3/10

Directed by János Zsombolyai

7.2/10