Peter Scherrer Movies

After their success in Nekem Lampast Adott Kezembe Az Ur Pesten and Anyad! A Szunyogok, Zoltan Musci and Peter Scherer make their third appearance together as dancing grave diggers Kapa and Pepe in this idiosyncratic musical comedy. As Kapa and Pepe pass their time in Heroes' Square in Budapest, they find themselves confronted by members of a number of political and social groups, including a gang of Hungarian wiseguys, a handful of right-wing extremists, and a faction of leftist radicals. But no matter how hard they try, Kapa and Pepe can't seem to fit in with any of them, finding their dancing works best on its own. Utolso Vacsora Az Arabs Szurkenel was directed by veteran filmmaker Miklos Jansco, who was 80 years old when the film was released. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Experimental filmmaker and elder statesman Miklós Jancsó's surreal allegory about the present stands out with its twisted humor -- a cemetery is the film's starting point and leitmotif. The protagonists, Kapa and Pepe, are two gravediggers who sit on a little bench in the cemetery and while away the time fooling around with the world (including Jancsó and screenwriter Gyula Hernadi, who appear as themselves). The gravediggers are at the same time hoodlums, bankers, lawyers, nouveau riche, bankrupt entrepreneurs and terrorists. One thing is certain; they are indestructible. They are like the director and the screenwriter, who get shot because their names are on a list, but little do they care. In the meanwhile, the audience is greatly entertained with a lot of humor. Instead of a story, there are several episodes, and life, death, success and failure, philosophy, humor and satire are all mixed in these seemingly disconnected episodes. What connects them is the locale; they all take place in Budapest, where anything can happen. Nekem Lampast Adott Kezembe az ur Pesten earned the Gene Moskowitz foreign critics award at the 30th Annual Hungarian Film Week festival in 1999 and it was also screened as part of the International Forum of New Cinema section of the 49th Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Chief secretary of the Union of Hungarian Film and Television Artists, a documentarist and a renowned feature filmmaker, Gyorgy Szomjas has distinguished himself by focusing exclusively on social problems and often working with non-professionals. With Gengszterfilm (Gangster Film), he demonstrates how one can become a gangster in post-totalitarian Hungary. A pleasant former officer of the former People's Army, also a former prisoner in a former socialist prison, becomes a cold-blooded robber and murderer in the surprisingly compliant new democracy, and he now deals with his personal complexes in his own way. Is it envy or conceit or high politics that forces people into crime? Are morals and decency important in our society? The film raises these questions without providing definitive answers. Gengszterfilm was screened at the 1999 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi