Gyula Gazdag

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

Shot in B&W, Gyula Gazdag's film follows the surreal and often comic quests of young Andris, an orphan searching for a father who doesn't exist, and Orban, a government clerk who's had enough of oppressive bureaucracy.

Right after the Red Army in 1944 was deliberating a little village, Veszto in eastern Hungary, the locals formed their "government", excommunicated the goods remaining in the village and distributed them among the poor. The social experiment only lasted two months, but this episode later became infamous in the communist press of Hungary and was referred to as 'Republic of Veszto'. 35 years later, in 1979, the actors and the witnesses, the representatives of the communist administration back then and the poors of the village get together in a little pub in Veszto and try to resuscitate and evaluate those old days. The memories clash one another.

Via the New York Times: "The Hungarian director Gyula Gazdag has transposed the middle section of Balzac's "Lost Illusions" from Paris in the mid-19th century to the Budapest of 1968... it tells of Laszlo Sardi - Balzac's Lucien Chardon - and his efforts to launch his literary career amid the snobbery and sophistication of a big city."

György Schirilla, known for his long-distance running and swimming across the icy Danube, ran to Moscow to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. A year later, a bistro was built in his honour in the small Hungarian village of Kenderes. Gyula Gazdag captured moments of his run to Kenderes and the opening ceremony. The film's original title comes from a "poem" delivered by the village council president, which included the line: "We can always count on your long run."

Mr. Dezső and Rezső are selecting the heroes for their new operetta. They represent different tastes and styles, and keep arguing about the casting of the four men and four women.

Janos and Kata are thrown together during the Second World War and forced to pose as husband and wife to hide from the Nazis. The intensity and suffocating intimacy of their new relationship and the circumstances in which they find themselves, forces them to confront past prejudices and assumptions and challenge what they truly believe.

In a border town two sons of the local commander using stolen arms take hostages of eighteen girls in a dormitory, because they want to go West by plane.