Károly Makk

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.

Insulted when his screenwriter wife writes a leading role for a younger man, aging Broadway idol Fitz Wynn disguises himself as a handsome young Italian.

Peti, the young parachutist starts concurring with his fellows during the training sessions: who dares to fall free longer? Orodán, his coach decides that if needed, he would use force to make him give up this perilous rowdiness.

Under pressure from his publisher, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky gets work on his latest piece, 'Rouletenberg'. In the 27 days it takes for him to complete the novel reality and fiction become blurred; in this feverish atmosphere of excess Dostoyevsky's characters come to life as he struggles to complete his work.

The chroniclers are diligently scribbling the history of life and deeds of the virtuous and wise King Matthias, who, in the meantime, sneaks out of the palace in disguise. Instead of attending a boring reception of the imperial deputies and papal legates, he pays his address to three pretty women from Szelistye.

1958. In the cell of the condemned, seven men await the signs of an approaching execution. All of them recall their pasts and envision their wish-dreams.

Iván is living in exile from Hungary when he receives word that an old flame is ill. His return to Budapest rekindles old memories and reopens old wounds.

A hunting party arrives at a lodge in the Tatra mountains in Slovakia, where one woman in the party had “accidentally” shot and killed her first husband some time ago.

The young worker Tóth Gáspár gets into hospital with stomachache. During the night his state is worsening. The doctor on duty, Málnási does not attend the patient despite the call of the nurse, for he spends the night with nurse Margó.

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.

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.

An Italian businessman, Mario comes to the country and opens his shoe company in a small village. A middle-aged female worker falls in love with Mario, but she is not the only one whose life will be changed.

This sarcastic drama is taken from the popular Hungarian novel by Tibor Dery. A terminally ill writer (Jozef Kroner) of national prominence watches as family and friends gather like vultures for his imminent demise. Relli (Alexander Bardini) smiles and pretends to be the writer's friend as he tries to get his hands on an unpublished manuscript. The opening scene is the highlight of the film. While the dead writer is being laid to rest in a national funeral, he emerges from the coffin and walks into his own grave while the mourners flee in terror.

Luca, who regularly visits her bedridden mother-in-law, hides from her the fact that János, his son, has been arrested on a trumped up political charge.

Károly Makk strings together two novellas by Tibor Déry. A téglafal mögött is set in the early 1950s. Comrade Bódi, an embittered party worker, reports his fellow workers who are stealing ‘the assets of the people’ from the factory. During the subsequent public investigation, one of them commits suicide. The camera of Makk tells the story of the period through the crumpled face of Jozef Króner, the blank, hopeless stare of Mari Törőcsik and images of a decaying factory site. In Philemon és Baucis, like in Szerelem, the subject of ageing is tied to the traumas of the 1950s. History turns the idyllic private life of an elderly couple (Elma Bulla and Antal Páger) upside down. The 1956 uprising sweeps an injured fighter their way. The old man helps as best he can while his wife desperately tries to save her husband…

The story is set in the present day. László Sziráki, a womanizer and chemistry professor, is searching for the secret of making gold, but one component is missing. He wants fame and a solution to his financial problems. When he meets Esthena, an eccentric philosopher who wants to lose her virginity, he succeeds in turning plastic into gold. But he, a shrewish and shrewd man, does not recognise the exceptional nature of this encounter and pushes her away. Sophika, the wise grandmother of Syracuse, also meets Esthena: she sees her as a kindred spirit and assigns her to her grandson. But in the meantime, Mr. Maci, Esthéna's bumfordian and buffalo-loving gladiator knight, who will do anything for the girl, begins to pursue the alchemist out of jealousy. Will Syracuse find the answer to the alchemist's question? And is making gold even important?

In 1948, when Hungarian industry counts on almost every liter of fuel, the production of Makert, an American oil company in Hungary, is declining by the day. The firm's American owners claim that the oil field is depleted. However, the new government controller, Nerges, discovers that this is sophisticated sabotage by which representatives of American industrial circles want to disrupt socialist construction in the country. With the help of Hungarian state security officers, Nergesz uncovers and neutralizes the saboteurs at the mine and hastens the Hungarian people's decision to nationalize Makert.

The flat of Doctor Bartha is wetting, the Communal Management Enterprise does not act, the doctor and his wife are at the edge of divorce. Géza would marry his colleague, Kató, but mum is sick, the apartment is small, no money. Uncle Károly is fed up with unsuitable, charlatan business managers. Vali would marry, in order not to live on Titi and Piri any more, but the selected man wants to have a woman with her own apartment. All of them have a chance by the lottery, especially by hitting twelve scores.

​A young doctor named Zoltán flees Budapest for his father’s rural estate after performing an illegal abortion on his lover that results in her death. While hiding in the countryside, he attempts to grapple with his guilt and the moral weight of his actions while reconnecting with his estranged family. His isolation is interrupted by a burgeoning relationship with a local woman, Mira, which forces him to choose between permanent escape or facing legal and ethical accountability.

Examining magistrate Sévigné wants to make a career in Paris, mainly at the urging of his wife. She is assigned to investigate a murder case, the victim was a maid, the accused was the maid. The examining magistrate, against his orders, believes in her innocence and starts a thorough investigation. The interrogations reveal who the real murderer is.

A brothel in a small Hungarian town becomes the home of a medical student after his favorite working girls find out he's out of rent money. Trouble brews as they learn his mother is coming for a visit and they must transform the house.

During World War II Carlotta, the circus owner maintains herself, her lover and her rather run-down circus-team by illegal man-smuggling. In the year of 1944, besides the usual refugees, she even has to take Professor Máté, the renown mathematician to the Yugoslavian partisans. The team is joined by Carlotta's psychotic son who has escaped from an asylum.

In May 1919 in a small rural town beside Salgótarján the local high society wants to get the power back with the leadership of dr. Máriáss, exploiting the outside attack launched against the Republic of Councils.

From Bonaparte to Casanova, history is cast in the light of famous escapes from various European countries.