Can Togay Movies

The fall of communism in Hungary and the power of the movies to change people's lives provide the backdrop for this drama from Hungarian director Togay Can. Ladu (Matej Matejka) and Radi (David Szabo) are two school-age film buffs living in a tiny Hungarian village -- so small, as the locals like to say, it's "behind God's back." Each and every week, Ladu and Radi eagerly await the arrival of the latest attraction at the town's only movie house, which comes into town via motorcycle delivery man. One week, however, the boys get the bad news: the driver has passed on, which means no more movies for the time being. Ladu takes matters into his own hands; he finds several old reels of film in a storage area at the theater, and patches together a new story from bits and pieces of a stack of screen classics, including Battleship Potemkin, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and La Grande Illusion. Ladu's remarkable collage of images has a profound effect on the townspeople; several find themselves dramatically reassessing their lives, and the audience at one screening is so moved as to defy the bidding of the village's corrupt mayor and party boss. Egy Tel Az Isten Hata Mogott received its premiere at the 1999 Hungarian Film Week Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Mavi Sürgün is a fictionalized account of one period of the life of a Turkish journalist who was condemned to exile for an article he wrote in 1925. He turned his punishment into a reward by creating a little paradise in what is today the holiday resort, Bodrum. In fact he is considered by some to be the first ecologist. The film concentrates on this latter aspect of his character and through flashbacks portrays the inner turmoil of a man who is trying to come to terms with his past. The slow pace is somewhat of a drawback, the flashbacks are often confusing and the protagonist is not always very convincing. But the photography of the country side is exceptional Kenan Ormanlar and the short appearance by a very theatrical Hanna Schygulla of Fassbinder fame adds a little spice to the drama. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

In this movie, a woman is going mad, literally, with frustration. Based on a novel by Ingeborg Bachmann, Isabelle Huppert plays the distraught woman who feels that the choice between her uninspiring husband and her indifferent lover warrants ever-escalating displays of rage, distress and loss of self-control. Eventually her self-indulgence leads to her setting her now-demolished Viennese apartment on fire and burning herself alive in it while the movie score plays songs from grand opera to celebrate her dramatic departure from life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Using high-school students, Hungarian director Ferenc Kardos re-created the 1848 revolutionary period in that country's history which was dominated by the poet/soldier Sandor Petofi (1822-1849). Petofi wrote many epic poems which inspired Hungarian nationalism, the most well-known of which is Up Magyar! The students were encouraged to improvise without costumes or scenery, and did so with gusto. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi