Ádám Szirtes

The Black City

Feature film version of the 1971 series. On the eve of the 18th century, County Vicecomes Görgey Pál broods alone in his manor while the town of Leutschau celebrates New Year’s with lead‐casting omens and a disastrous hunt that sparks a bitter feud. As Görgey fights for his honor and life, and the townspeople defend their Saxon privileges, their mutual blind ambition prevents them from seeing the rising light of Rákóczi’s coming rebellion.

A 78-as autóbusz útvonala - Kis kitérővel

A passenger has a heart attack on bus 78. People react in different ways to the tragedy, which causes a minor panic, but fortunately there are still some people with their heads and hearts in the right place. Are there?

Martin Cuckoo

Marci, an impertinent crook buries his drunk parents and chooses to wander instead of becoming an apprentice.

The Martyrdom of St. John

Story of a young teacher starting to work in rural Hungary

Tűrhető Lajos

Öcsi is a difficult child to handle, although he always wants to do good. For example, if he fights, he only does it to protect the girls, he does the dishes in the bathroom because he developed a better procedure, and he also brought a puppy home just to ease the family’s financial worries.

The Girl

A young woman leaves a state orphanage to find her mother in this interesting examination of how the overt repression of women in the older pattern of village life has been replaced by the more subtle exploitation inherent in the apparently freer existence of young girls in the contemporary city.

Just Like America

Frigyes, shortly after immigrating to New York City from Hungary, leaves his family for the pleasures and gratifications of being a street bum. But as time goes by, the appeal of this lifestyle wanes. A series of adventures with other drifters reaches a dramatic conclusion when some thugs murder one of them. This startling event forces Frigyes to come to terms with his current situation and decide whether to return to the family he abandoned.

Romanticism

This film, set at the end of the 18th century, in a provincial and noble environment raises the question of humans forced to lead a meaningless life. The rich Transylvanian noble youth, Kálmán, absorbed the spirit of freedom and enlightened culture in Paris. Returning to his father's estate, he encounters a superstitious backwardness and an orgiastic storming of violence and instincts.

The Palisade Street Kidnapping

The Kondor family lives on the outskirts of Budapest, the father a truck driver abroad. The subtenant wants to act like the head of the family one day, but one of the children thwarts his wedding plans.

Sparrows Are Birds Too

A comedy about two twin brothers - Sándor, who emigrated and became a rich man, and Zoltán, who stayed in Hungary and lives the life of an average working-class man. When Sándor visits his twin brother, they are constantly mistaken for each other, and when Zoltán sees how differently people treat Sándor because of his money and his foreign citizenship, he begins to like being mistaken for him - until he realizes that this means he will lose his girlfriend Szöszi...

Twenty Hours

A crusading newspaper reporter covers the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Initially critical of the communists, the feature later espouses the virtues of the social changes implemented since the invasion. The title refers to the period of time the reporter spent interviewing witnesses to the invasion.

Catherine' Marriage

Kis Katalin and Varga Jóska are getting married. During their honeymoon they are preparing plans for the future. Katalin, however, seems to lag behind both in her studies and the work competition, becoming a couch potato version of a wife. Jóska, instead of trying to help, does nothing else than his work.

It's a Long Way Home

Csepel, 1945. The Csűrös family, in addition to their three children, give accommodation to the orphaned Jóska, although they themselves struggle with difficult circumstances. The boy lends a helping hand in the factory during the days.

The Fanatics

Bene, tired of the professional battles of engineers and trying to escape a ship-wrecked marriage, asks to be transferred to the country. The gravest problem of the sandy region in Nagyalföld (Great Hungarian Plain) is the shortage of water. The tireless director of the local state farm asks for Bene's support, but the disillusioned man refuses him.

The Soil Under Your Feet

In 1905 Hungary, a young village woman has just undergone a marriage to the spoiled son of a man to whom her father is indebted, in order that the debt be cancelled, only to be spirited away by her true love, a young peasant, by whom she soon becomes pregnant. Together they attempt to find a way to buy up her father's debt and also pay for a divorce from her husband, against various odds.

Villa Negra

A past world is revived in the little cottage in the outskirts, next to the housing blocks under construction. Tamburás, the old hobo collects swerved youth: Diák, who desires freedom, the bus driver who is deprived of his license for having run over someone, and the rest. They have got an easy and unbound life there, with constant music, small thefts, occasional labour, tricks.

Dream Brigade

The heroes of the film are manual workers, members of a Socialist Brigade. Gyula, the brigade leader once has a dream where the gate-keeper searches through Lenin, about to leave the factory. He decides to stage Gelman's play, Premium, with his brigade, since the drama very effectively depicts what they see in the world around.

The Elephant

Just a few days before the foreign delegation arrives at the ZOO, someone scribbled the elephant with unwashable paint.

The Widow and the Police Officer

Mrs. Holló reports the case of three missing persons to the police. During the investigations, the captain realises that there is nothing to deter Mrs. Holló from her trying to overcome loneliness.

Pheasant Tomorrow

The loving couple of this grotesque parable parody of the Kádár-regime, Mária and István row to an uninhabited, idyllic island. Soon crazy tent-pitchers swarm to the island, led by an official representative of the regime.

Hello, Vera

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.

A Mad Night

The grotesque comedy with crime elements takes place in a grocery store.

Captive Ráby

Joseph II, the enlightened Austro-Hungarian emperor, entrusts his loyal and confidential subject, Ráby Mátyás, formerly a treasurer, to examine the abuses made by the magistrates of Szentendre and Izbég. Following his old friend, Dacsó Marci's directions, Ráby reveals horrible robberies, tax evasions, frauds, and other illegal acts having been committed against the people.

The Birth of Menyhért Simon

Every member of a small community in the snow-capped Bükk Mountains is trying to help the doctor get to István Simon forester's house where his wife is about to give birth to their first child.

A Thorn under the Fingernail

From the intrigues and slander of the branch the painter Hódosi moves out to a hamlet at Hortobágy. He gets into conflict situation as well as he cannot endure that the political and economic elite of the neigbourhood would devastate the nature conservation area with hunting and (tax evading) goose husbandry.

Another Way

Political and sexual repression in Hungary, just after the revolution of 1956. Passionate and determined, Eva gets a job as a journalist. There, she meets Livia and is attracted to her. Livia feels much the same, but as a married woman, has doubts and hesitations. In their work, they (and Eva in particular) bang up against the limits of telling political truths; in private, they confront the limits of living out sexual and emotional truth.

Cold Days

Andras Kovacs' film, considered one of the most important Hungarian films of the 1960s, centers around four men who await trial for their involvement in the massacre of several thousand Jewish and Serbian people of Novi Sad in 1942. Each denies any responsibility, claiming that they were only following orders. The film is significant for its willingness to address the subject of Hungary's role in WWII, which was taboo at the time of the its release.

Popcorn und Paprika

The German national swimming team travels to Budapest for a competition. However, the teenagers are more interested in flirting with each other than training. Their coach is less than thrilled with his team's behavior.

The Talking Caftan

The 16th century Kecskemét troubled by both the Kurutses and the Labancs would like a Bey from the Buda pasha to defend them in exchange for four beautiful girls, but only gets a caftan. It was a good deal, however. All Muslims fall on their knees when they see the magic caftan and fulfil its owner's wish.

The Magic Jacket

The poor little Ferkó is trying to enrich his miserable life with imaginary fairy tale figures and superstitious little stories. He suffers from diphtheria, and while he is having a visionary dream, Cinkekirály (Titmouse King) saves him from the claws of the magic Küsmödi. He expects his magic jacket to enable him to know everything at school without having studied.

Krebsz, the God

The protagonist of this farce is the enthusiastic, bald, spectacled Krebsz, an employee at the Prime and Sample Institute. He alerts the whole village to organise a beauty contest in the weed-field of Balatonszutykos. Hoping to win the grand prize, the leading role in a two-hour colour-film, the girls make all efforts and use all their tricks.

Test Trip

Vetró János, the lorry driver, is an alcoholic. His marriage is in pieces, his wife has a lover. Their son suffers an accident. The next day his wife moves out. In his desperation, Vetró drinks even more, and leaves his work as well.

Penny

The story of a young servant girl who comes to work on the construction site of a large-scale industrial settlement. She decides to embark on an independent life, runs away from her foster parents, gets on a train and sets out to earn money. Modest and shy, she joins the factory's group of "Stakhanovites" and soon makes new comrades. Her coworkers accept her into their team.

Bunny

A country family unbounds by the death of the head of family and they set off for a miners' town under construction, just like their forefathers, "to take the land". As an outpost, the eldest daughter, Anna is sent, who has a stormy past.

Merry-Go-Round

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.

Rózsa Sándor

In the 1830s, Hungary, ruled by Vienna, experienced another sad period. The quiet loneliness of the lowland farmland was whipped up by the invincible rule of the Pandurs and Persian tutors. The antagonism between power and the people was becoming excessive. Thus was born the legend of the outlaws, including Sándor Rózsa, who became the notorious vigilante of the wastelands around Szeged.

Öcsi, a sztár

Öcsi adores Sarolta, the prettiest girl in class. Öcsi wants to woo her, but how? Take her bag, kidnap her in a Mercedes, serenade her? In this cheerful film with music and dance, scenes alternate between real and imaginary.

The Pregnant Papa

In the small village of Rátót, every male is called Béla. When a woman gives birth to her child, she names him Józsi...

Kojak in Budapest

Lt. Kojak arrives in Budapest as a guest speaker for the 'International Crime Writers Conference'. Soon after he starts enjoying the pleasures that the city has to offer, he assists his old friends at the police department with a case. The case involves solving the murder of a noted scientist, unaware that a Mafia hit man and his female companion are targeting him.

Military Band

Merry soldiers arrive in the sleepy Transdanubian town. The cynical woman-hunter, Ferdinándy, learns to know doctor Barlay's beautiful wife at a carnival. She lives a happy married life, and the attentions of the lieutenant are all in vain.

Gala Dinner

Varsa engineer receives the Kossuth award for his excellent work. His career once began at the family enterprise of his wife, so the woman invites her relatives for a dinner party.

The Sack

For the first time after 11 years, Simon, a young historian visits the village of his childhood at Balaton and Aunt Lina, his foster-mother. He gets upset by what he experiences there: the old woman's troublesome and vexing everydays, her quiet sadness. He is overwhelmed by his own memories, the death of his foster-father and by everything he was not aware of before, or he simply wanted to forget.

Georges Dandin

György Dandin, the rich bourgeois concludes a marriage contract with the noblemen Lükeházy couple who has turned poor: he can marry their daughter in return of a regular financial contribution. Angyalka escapes the undesired husband at their very first night, and furthermore she establishes a secret romantic relationship with Count Klitander who suits her a lot better.

A Bird of Heaven

Panni, coming from a landless family of ten and Miska have loved each other for a long time. The pretty Panni, however, has another suitor as well: Komáromi, the big farmer. The two men fight from time to time, but then, during the time Miska is serving his military duty, Panni marries Komáromi to end the tremendous squalor of her family.

I'll Appeal to the Minister

A comedy about the organisation of agricultural co-operatives. In the village of "Rendes", everybody has already entered the co-op, only the stubborn farmer, Bódog Balogh continues to resist. The leadership plays all their tricks and uses all their efforts, but all in vain.

The Face

The film take place in Budapest, in the end of The World War II, telling the story of a young Communist who escaped from prison. The boy tries to revitalise his contact with the movement, but he is told to be quiet and wait.

Tales of a Long Journey

On the crowded train, the workers entertain each other by telling stories.

Wait a Sec!

This film shows us around a factory in the seventies in Hungary. In the outskirts factory of Kőbánya workers celebrate the foundation members and want to present the oldest member, Uncle Benda, now a pensioner, with a golden ring. His grandson, Karcsi Merkovics, an industrial apprentice, is in love with the foreman's daughter.

Face to Face

The members of a rifle-corps unit gather in a village by the western border

Battle in Peace

András Beke, a tractor driver, enlists as a conscript, but he does not want to accept the army's rules and regulations, he wants to show that he is an individual here too. During the marching drill, he goes on an exploratory expedition, drinks from the forbidden water and commits other offences. But the educational punishments make him realise that in the army, instead of being a hero, you have to learn, work hard, stand up for yourself and show solidarity. His re-education is aided by his commanders and peers, but love also plays an important role...

The Silent File

This detective story about three women who humiliate men. An accidental mishap reveals the spying activities of Pál Kovács, a foreign trader. The investigation is made more difficult by Kovács' persistent silence.The trail leads to his girlfriend, Éva László, an OTP employee, against whom an unsuccessful assassination attempt is made. In prison, Kovács' life is in danger. The investigation brings to the fore a gang of spies who are about to leave the country, but the gang's boss "Bimbó" keeps them in hand so that he can be the first to make his move.

A Certain Major Benedek

On the eve of World War II, Major Benedek Zoltán is an embodiment of the service regulations in the army. He only discloses his feelings towards Anna, his brother's widow. An investigation is conducted in the regiment to identify Communists.

The Accent

An adult educator arrives in the small-town factory with loads of books, energy and a freshly received diploma. The honest young man with dreamy eyes humanises the life of the plant, in a way distributing himself among people.

Liberated Land

Jóska has become a Communist in the Csillag prison in Szeged. In the meantime, Gábor successfully talks people in Jóska's native village out of joining the German-led Hungarian army.

Love Travelling a Coach

The top management of the co-operative in the rural community at Lake Balaton goes on coaches everywhere to irritate Mrs. Peczöli, the snobbish wife of the only individual farmer. Peczöli would readily join the co-operative, should it not oppose his apple improving experiments.

Legenda a nyúlpaprikásról

Gazsi, the protagonist of the novel, comes from the very edge of the society of the small village; he is an unliveable, helpless, simple-minded person. The only thing he dreams of is a rabbit paprika. However, when the dream could come true, as he takes part in a hunt, Gazsi takes the side of the persecuted and saves the rabbit Paprikás.

Rab ember fiai

Transylvania during the reign of the great prince Mihály Apafi I. The Turk asks Prince Apafi for another tribute, and the Prince sends him two hundred gold pieces with Kristoff Szitáry. His two sons accompanied him halfway. On the way, they stop at the house of the caliph Pisliczar and spend the night there, and in the morning only Kristóf Szitáry continues his journey to Oradea. The Pasha is happy to receive him, but as soon as he opens the bags of money, stones and pieces of horseshoe fall out.

Anna Szabó

A female worker in Socialist Hungary gains the acceptance of her male colleagues.

Nyugati övezet

Prof. Laurent Akush from the Institute of Geophysics is working on a device that can be used to locate coal underground. For successful work he needs a tube XCX13, it is available in the West, but foreign firms sabotage the supply of the device. In his institute there is an enemy engaged in sabotage, but the professor does not believe in enemies. He believes that this is propaganda, science is above ideology, and that "scientists are made of a different dough." Laurent Akush receives an invitation to the international geological congress in Berlin, there he hopes to meet an old American friend, the scientist McLane. He takes with him his assistant Ferenc Ervish and a young Stakhanovite worker, Ishvan Kadosh. The professor does not yet know that in Berlin, Colonel Thompson of American intelligence is preparing a trap for him.

Hit and Run

Judge Csanádi András makes a confession to his boss one night: he fell in love with the pretty, modern driver woman, Zenthe Judit in a fencing room. The girl suddenly returned his feelings. One night she confessed to him crying: she hit someone. The case was assigned to Csanádi, who wanted to investigate the circumstances meticulously despite his feelings. Thus the so far hidden life of Judit, which is bound to the past former world and its values is now highlighted. He is confused, asks his boss to absolve him from the assignment, but refuses to do so. Csanádi realises in the court room: Judit kept on telling lies, she played the lover for her own interest. The judge passed his crisis, he will deliver a fair sentence.

A Strange Mark of Identity

Imre, secretary of the illegal communist party arrives in Budapest secretly in 1942, in order to start the newspaper of the party in the fight against war. Not even his own mother can see him.

The Sea has Risen

March 15, 1848; the revolution breaks out in the town of Pest. Yet at café Pilvax, in among he revolutionary youth, there is the informer of the imperial court as well. Hearing the news of the attack led by Jellasics, the inhabitants of the villages pour into the national army, and Hajdú Gyurka also escapes from his landlord. Petőfi is there at the camp of the revolutionaries, raising them to enthusiasm with his poetry.

János Háry

The triumphant adventures of the Hungarian baron Münchausen are recounted in the form of a musical.

A Sunday Romance

The poetic love story depicting everyday life from a micro-psychological aspect takes place in the 1910s. Sándor, editor of the local paper, serves as a foot soldier on Sundays, but spends weekdays playing billiard and courting women. One Sunday afternoon - in soldier's uniform - he meets Vilma, the beautiful maid, whose honesty and chastity turns the adventure to love.

Raid

1932, Budapest. Gere János, an unemployed worker searching for employment in the capital, is organised into the secret police after a raid. Summary justice is declared, and the police wants to find an illegal communist press at any price. Gere, wandering about in the dark city, joins a man, helping him to carry his luggage. Slowly, Gere learns that his companion is a Communist and his task is to keep the press machine hidden from the police.

The House Under the Rocks

Three people – a returned prisoner of war, his beautiful second wife, and the possessive, hunchbacked spinster who is his sister-in-law by his first marriage – are isolated in a little house under an extinct volcano, where each strives for personal happiness but is suffocated by their dependence on the others.

Pár lépés a határ

Based on the novel of the same name by Lajos Meszterházy about the escape from prison of two communists sentenced to death. The movie is set in 1921, two years after the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Virrad

A sequel to "Yesterday". About the defeat of the Hungarian uprising of 1956. The action takes place in the barracks of the People's Army, in the War Ministry and in one of the largest factories in Budapest.

The Brigade No. 39

The spring of 1919. Karikás Frigyes reorganises brigade 39 at the Tisza. His most devoted soldiers are Korbély János and his followers, who remain faithful to the political commissioner under all circumstances.

Dreams of Love

This is a romantic biographical film about Franz Liszt. In a distinguished saloon of Paris, the unknown composer, Liszt, defeats the renown Thalberg at a piano competition. Through his playing, he wins the favours and later the hand of the countess D'Agoult. A daughter is born in their marriage, Cosima. Liszt is better and better known, Marie introduces him to the circle of artists.

Our Kid

Kölyök, this lovely, ham-handed young woman, has caused many a trouble already in the Dunaújváros Iron Works. Fortunately, however, the manager does not want to give her up, what is more, Kölyök found a second father even at the police.

Four Girls in a Courtyard

Four young primary school teachers live together in a country cottage of a remote village and in a constant monotony somewhat varied with quarrelling with one another. They spend their lives around the school and the yard. One night, a cheerful company of hunters pops in their home.

The Limits of Love

Zsófi, the young nurse is surprised to see how difficult it is for some people to change their habits. She uses rather strict methods to make people get used to cleanliness and healthy diet and to create a proper life style for the women when pregnant. Doctor Varga, who has lost faith in his wife, tends to accept the young nurse's clever arguments in more and more matters. Later he falls in love with the dynamic girl.

Once upon a Railway...

The children of Somsabátony decide to build the country's first children's railway as they very much would like to make their birth-place famous.

Cat's Play

Karoly Makk's heartbreaking story of two unmarried sisters who cast wistful glances back at their lives, but still believe in hope and love, earned an Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In this follow-up to the director's internationally acclaimed Love, Makk once again exhibits his extraordinary skills at drawing emotionally compelling performances from his talented female leads. Makk's film opposes the bleakness of the outside world with passion, love, and loyalty.

April Alarm

1946. Borok Vince, party secretary, and Holló Döme, former landowner, arrive in Nagybökény the same day at Easter. The latter wants to get back his castle and land with the help of his attorney. Albert József, the police-chief, wants to strengthen Communist power with tough actions. His R-guards disperse the clerical torch march.