ZÁRÓJELENTÉS / FINAL REPORT

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.

IŠTVAN SABO / István Szabó

A key figure in Hungarian film István Szabó began his career with highly acclaimed auteur films in the 1960s and 1970s, only to make a real breakthrough on the international film scene in the 1980s, making history as the first Hungarian Oscar winner. He was born in 1938 in Budapest, where he studied at the prestigious Academy of Theater and Film Arts. At the age of 26, he directed his first feature film, The Age of Illusions (1964), which won the award for best debut in Locarno. His first films were partly autobiographical: Father (1966), Lovefilm (1970) and 25 Fireman's Street (1973) dealt with the experiences of his generation and recent Hungarian history. In 1980, Szabó  announced a drastic turnaround with the film Confidence, which brought him the Silver Bear for directing in Berlin. This achievement was followed by a new phase of Szabó's career and his great breakthrough on the world film scene. Mephisto (1981), based on the novel by Klaus Mann, is the most famous, and in the opinion of many, the best film by Szabó, which won the award for Best Screenplay in Cannes, as well as the Oscar for Best Foreign Flm. This achievement, together with the next two (Colonel Redl, 1985 and Hanusen, 1988), forms a kind of trilogy and the culmination of Szabó's career, and marks the beginning of a successful collaboration with the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. In the 1990s, Szabó made another career change and began making films in English: Meeting Venus (1991), Sunshine (1999), Taking Sides (2001), Being Julia (2004), Rokonok (2006) and The Door (2012). Three years ago at FEST he was awarded the “Belgrade Winner” award for outstanding contribution to film art.

Veteran Hungarian helmer István Szabó’s latest feature is a sedate contemplation of old age.

David Katz, Cineuropa