Mari Csomós

Over the course of four generations, a family in Hungary confronts poverty, political turmoil and a life that's perpetually on the move.

Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.

Trumpet player Géza Elekes does not play very well in his private life, and his fourth marriage has failed. One day he gets a call from his father, whom he hasn't spoken to in decades. This prompts her and her son, András, who is in the thick of things, to visit her parents, who live across the border. When he arrives in Transylvania, his father says he is fed up with her jealousy and moves in with him. Géza reluctantly accepts the idea, but eventually the three men set off for Budapest. Along the way, they face many trials and tribulations: hit-and-runs, chases, women, corpses and the green border.

1997. Young car mechanic Iván lives in a godforsaken village in eastern Hungary. He looks after his mentally disabled sister Eszter and earns extra money smuggling diesel oil from Ukraine. The siblings' coexistence is disrupted by a tragic event, Eszter is raped. A police investigation gets under way; in the meantime, Iván starts up a relationship with young Ilus, who has just finished school and is planning on going to the university. Iván plainly wants to leave his old life behind him, but will he be able to fulfill this ambition? - Written by Warsaw Film Festival

The events of the story take place in the outskirts of working class people in the early nineteen fifties. Makra, a skilled worker in a factory, suddenly comes to close quarters with everything around him because his environment condemns and ridicules him for protecting a woman when his drunk fellows were going to rape her after his bachelor party.

In 1930s Hungary, budding aristocrat Lőrinc Parcen Nagy undergoes a moral awakening. He abandons his privileged life to join the socialist underground, facing the harsh realities of class struggle and the approach of WWII.

No one is happier than Ondris, who is celebrating his bachelor party and wedding, as his fondest dream has come true: he has won the hand of his beloved, his father's ward, Jadwiga, who was educated in Germany, and has been able to lure this irresistibly attractive but dangerously mysterious woman home. On the one hand, there is the playful but explosively intense physical and emotional passion of a young puppy, and on the other, the sincere, feminine longing for loving devotion and a joyful marriage, which at first may still inspire hope. But soon the threads begin to become entangled...

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.

A murder took place in 1961, a middle-aged man, father of a family, Dávid Sajgó, was found dead in his village gate in the morning. During the police investigation it was established that the murdered man had visited Anna Töre in the village the previous evening, had besieged her with a love proposal and had repeatedly proposed marriage. Anna Töre, who was a good-looking woman, had raised three children alone, by three different fathers, and was considered an eccentric in the community. She was suspected in the death.

"Who are you, wonderful creature, Who are you, man? The garment of your soul A bright robe woven of starry rays, And your body Worn rags cover your body. Your family is hungry, you are hungry yourself, And it is your Sunday, If soft bread should chance to be On your tableclothless table, And what is there for you and yours Thou canst not get, The world at large Thou strivest to make the world happy."

Kata, in her 20s, loses her boyfriend and her job on the same day. She's been indulging in fantasies of a more thrilling romantic life, and the cold water of being alone and unemployed doesn't entirely dampen her imagination. She's egged on by three girlfriends who get together to talk about men and sex. Kata has possibilities: she meets David, a medical student; there's Tamás, a stranger on a train who might be good for a relationship and a job. There's also Miki, her brother who's had serious drug problems. Is fulfillment within her grasp?

One summer morning, Anna tells her husband, the writer, that she is in a blessed state, but that she doubts whether she should have a fourth child in addition to the three she already has, because "having children here is, to put it mildly, illogical". This decision is explored in the film as events of the present are interspersed with memories of the past.

Karcsi, a Roma policeman, lives with Eva, a Swede. One day he is called to the scene of the murder of a wealthy trafficker named Schulter. He begins to investigate the crime, interrogate neighbours and suspects, and untangle a complex situation - one that he, himself, complicates even further. For he is a gypsy, who despite being adopted and raised by "regular" Hungarians, has his nose rubbed in his minority status every day. The film, which is based on the novel by Ákos Kertész, is a shrewd genre work full of dusky humour and surreal situations. Tabló follows a vivid succession of strange images that eventually lead to the emergence of the central story about a charismatic police officer on a tireless quest for the truth, though he must fight against virtually everyone and is just as fallible as the next person. Tabló makes a statement on the issue of race and racism - or, indeed, relations between any minority and majority.

An anthology film featuring four tales about the realities of life in Hungary and the Balkans.

Lili and Pali are "chance" bank robbers, and perhaps "chance lovers" but they don't have the opportunity to pursue their relationship. With stolen money in their backpacks they are constantly on the run and everything seems to go wrong. As they seek refuge in a rundown industrial town they learn they are now famous and have been nicknamed Bonnie & Clyde. A contemporary look at youth in Eastern Europe trying to find truth in a world found on deception.

A cross-section of the relationship between the two great figures of French symbolism, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.

It is a tragedy, set among low-lifes on the outskirts of Budapest. Dramatic Exchange describes it as "Widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years". The odd title of the play refers in the first instance to the chicken heads that an old woman feeds to her cat. However, it can also be taken to refer more broadly to the obtuse behaviour of the main characters in the play. The play is an odd mixture of pathos and nihilism, written against the bleak background of Stalinist totalitarianism from which Hungary was emerging. As with much modern drama, there is no hero in the play. The only noble behaviour that one can find belongs to one of the characters in the past, when he was a child, but he is no longer as he was. The hint that what once existed might be achieved again is the only faint ray of hope in a very bleak view of the human condition.

Pál Utrius is twenty three years old and in love with his sister.