György Cserhalmi Movies

Czech filmmaker Ondrej Trojan directs the period war drama Zelary, based on the novella Jozova Hanule by Kveta Legátová. During WWII, nurse Eliska (Anna Geislerová) is part of a secret resistance movement with her lover, surgeon Richard Littner (Ivan Trojan). When he is discovered, Eliska is forced to leave the hospital in order to hide from the Nazis. Her colleague Dr. Chladek (Jan Hrusínský) sends her off with mountain man Joza ( György Cserhalmi), who had been a patient in the hospital. Under the name Hana, Eliska travels with Joza to the tiny Moravian village of Zelary. They live in a modest cabin for two years, waiting for the Nazi occupation to end. Zelary was the Czech submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Directed by Miklos Szurdi, Vademberek ("Wild People") chronicles four thirty-something males and their regular trips to an island in the Danube. There is no love lost between the group, but when they discover that a valuable fishing rod they had hidden at the end of the previous trip has gone missing, they band together to implicate a Serb fisherman who is having an affair with one of the town's most beautiful women. Their suspiciouns are based soley on hatred geared towards anyone who isn't Hungarian, and the Serb fisherman (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) is tragically beaten and humiliated. Vademberek) features Gyozo Szabo, Tibor Szakacs, Ivan Kamaras, Laszlo Lippai, and Judit Schell. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

A middle-class teenaged girl is kidnapped by Albanian truckers who rape her and hold her captive in the back of their rig. Based on a true story, this drama follows her parents as they struggle, without much help from law enforcement, to bring their daughter safely home. Sandor and Eva are assisted by a retired cop. The abduction could not have come at a worse time, for Sandor is struggling to find the money he needs to pay back a potentially vicious loan shark. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Three disappointed wives, each seeking to divorce her husband, gather together for a wild night of drinking and fun in this colorful Hungarian-German comedy. Mother of two Eniko wants out of her marriage after her husband throws her through a glass door after she makes fun of his masculinity. Dorka, who also has a pair of kids, has fallen for a younger man, while Barbara, an actress, finds life with her husband, an erotic artist, stiflingly dull. The three women meet at an indoor pool get drunk and determined to dump their spouses. The film then chronicles the fate of each woman after that. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Set during WW II, two Jewish Hungarian youths are sent deep into the countryside by their mother after their father is taken to a labor camp. Little brother Ocsi goes to the village home of Maria, a good-hearted Catholic while Ilcsi is sent somewhere else. She becomes homeless when the Gestapo take over and eventually her wandering reunites Ilcsi with Ocsi on Maria's farm. The kindly woman allows the children to live in a secret loft in her barn. There the youngsters lead an idyllic summer existence far removed from war's harsh realities. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Hungarian satire pokes fun at the capitalistic tendencies of modern Hungary. The film is the sequel to 1969's "Witness." The original was set in the 50s and parodied the Communist regime as it chronicled the life of Jozsef Pelikan, a naive Hungarian rube. The sequel is set in the present and Pelikan has retired. Much of his time is spent tending his Magyar oranges on Danube island, Oroszvar. Against his will, he becomes again embroiled in modern Hungarian politics when entrepreneur, millionaire Szipak gets rid of Oroszvar's former mayor and asks Pelikan, whose reputation is still legendary, to become the new mayor. Szipak aspires to turn the island into Hungary's version of Las Vegas, but he needs to acquire certain properties on which to build his luxury casino. He appoints Heidi to monitor Pelikan who is still a foolish bungler. A nationalist organization, against the commercialization of the island, give Pelikan the deed to a worthless strip of sand. They then convince him to bless a new Hungarian factory. Szpiak ruins the ceremony. Poor Pelikan is trapped between the two sides. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Anna (Anna Ráczkevei) has a loving husband and three healthy, cheerful children. It has taken a lot of luck and a lot of work to get to this point, but she is satisfied. Who would have imagined that, after becoming pregnant and marrying at sixteen, things would have turned out so well. However, Anna is far from pleased to discover that she has become pregnant for a fourth time. Enough is enough. As Anna tries to cope with her feelings about this new development and to discern what she can do about it, she is overwhelmed with memories of the past and a strange fantasy about an ever-present saxaphone player. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Angus is a college student with a problem expressing himself. It runs in his family, since his father is no more likely speak about his feelings than he is to give someone a spontaneous hug. However, his dad is working on his closed manner by taking dancing lessons. Angus, on the other hand, is stiffer even than his old man, and his sister is another silent sufferer. When he comes back home from school for his birthday, he has an encounter (arranged by his dad) with the dance teacher, and the next morning he just can't stop talking about his feelings, going all the way back to his childhood. Neither can anybody else, and once the dam has burst, a flood of long-buried feelings comes to light. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The work of renowned Hungarian screenwriter and director Miklos Jancso has grown increasingly enigmatic since his first film in 1958. Jézus Krisztus horoszkópja is no exception to this rule. Jancso emphasizes highly evocative and ambiguous imagery over dialog or exposition. Here he seems primarily interested in showing the painful, stunted lives of Hungary's intellectuals, who are shown as remaining silent and ineffectual during various political crises. There are several action sequences involving chases and shootouts, but since there's no clear narrative we're not sure how they relate to each other or to anything else. The film is, however, visually fascinating, with shots of police cars, horses, and naked bodies juxtaposed and extensive use of multiple video imagery. The camera work is dazzling. This kind of film is obviously not aimed at general audiences. Fans of Jancso and those interested in experimental filmmaking will find it a difficult but rewarding experience. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr began his career making social realist domestic dramas, similar to the work of John Cassavettes. The feature before Damnation, Almanac of Fall, showed Tarr moving toward a more visually stylized form of filmmaking. With Damnation, the first of his collaborations with novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Tarr adopts a formally rigorous style, featuring long takes and slow tracking shots of the bleak landscape that surrounds the characters. Shot in black-and-white, Damnation tells the story of Karrer (Miklos B. Szekely), a depressed man in love with a married woman (Vali Kerekes) who sings at the local bar, Titanik. The singer has broken off their affair, despite her profession of love for him. She wants to improve her life. She dreams of becoming famous, but she herself embodies all of Karrer's hopes and dreams. Karrer is offered smuggling work by Willarsky (Gyula Pauer), the bartender at Titanik. Despite his lack of other prospects, Karrer tries to haggle with Willarsky over his take. Karrer eventually decides to offer the job to the singer's husband, Sebastyen (Gyorgy Cserhalmi), who has fallen on hard times. This gets the husband out of the way for a while, but things don't go as Karrer plans with the singer. There's a big, drunken dance, which everyone in town attends (though one demented soul prefers to dance maniacally in the rain outside). Afterwards, one betrayal falls upon another, leaving Karrer in despair, alienated from all of humanity. This film laid the groundwork for Tarr's next collaboration with Krasznahorkai, Satantango, a seven-hour film which they spent years developing, and which many consider Tarr's masterpiece. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A man recalls the memory of his late childhood friend in a series of flashbacks in this uneven political drama. Benedict Both (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) is the painter and political activist who along with friend Peter Halasz (Peter Andorai) took to the streets during the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. Benedict reflects on his childhood and memories of Peter when he learns of his friend's death in Paris. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi