István Szabó

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The early short films of István Szabó are fascinating etudes that foreshadow the topics and milieu of his later, globally successful feature films. Variations Upon a Theme is nothing less than an attempt to summon up HISTORY – in block capitals – using constructivist imagery. Sequences cut from archive footage shot in museums and cafés, compiled “objectively”, “in astonishment”, “as a scream”, are a warning that, just like the films of the great Central Europe trilogy, by the time a person realizes where they live, historical processes are already irreversible.Read More »

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‘This region for an airman is just a map’, however, whosoever looks closer will discover a thousand secrets of a thousand lives on each Budapest corner or balcony. Memories of peacetime afternoons, family photos, love letters, then bombed houses, tanks driving down deserted streets and decrepit buildings awaiting demolition all flash up for a moment in this lyrical etude by István Szabó, not the first work in his series of filmmaking confessions for Budapest. The story of a city that preserves its past in its buildings and its inhabitants won the grand prix at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 1977.Read More »

A cardiologist is sent into retirement, but he feels at loss without his work. He returns to his home village to work as a general practitioner. This is the start of his ordeal: he’s confronted with raw reality, which finally brings him to his knees. But music has the last word.Read More »

The Door (Hungarian: Az ajtó) is a 2012 Hungarian drama film directed by István Szabó and starring Helen Mirren. Movie based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Magda Szabo (no relation to the director) – tells the story of a writer and her housekeeper who develop an enduring relationship.

Mirren plays the role of housekeeper Emerenc in the novel which has been adapted for the screen by Istvan Szabo and Andrea Veszits.

The film has been selected to be featured in the competition programme at the 33rd Moscow International Film Festival.Read More »

A boy in Budapest loses his father in 1945, when he was the age of six. He does not remember much of the father but fantasizes that he performed various heroic feats.Read More »

The story shows Emma’s and Böbe’s fight for survival, for keeping their position in society which they achieved with hard work in the previous regime. They don’t want to lose their place and become village girls again.Read More »

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Memories and desires of the residents of a Pest apartment block condemned to be demolished swirl through this film by István Szabó. For the director in his thirties, the 1970s was the age of discovery; this work is an experiment at adapting the Modernist stream of conscious film genre for a Hungarian audience. The struggle of the individual against history is a recurring Szabó theme, which in this movie he takes closest to the limits of the narrative form.Read More »

Set during the fading glory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the film tells of the rise and fall of Alfred Redl (Brandauer), an ambitious young officer who proceeds up the ladder to become head of the Secret Police only to become ensnared in political deception.Read More »

A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.Read More »