The Prince's Respite

Visus shows the working of the eye using optical and sound effects neglecting the concrete nature of the objects depicted while promoting a technically impeccable exploration of photo receptive capacities to an essay on the visible and the invisible in order to make a poetic vow of loyalty to the act of vision.

The story is based around an American Idol kind of TV talent show and the eventual winner of the contest: a young orphan woman, who works at an orphanage herself. As I learned from the werkfilm on the DVD, the story was specifically written for Oláh, who in real life was the runner-up of the very first such TV show in Hungary “Megasztár” (“MegaStar”) in 2004. She didn’t win there despite being many viewers’ favorite and having a terrific voice. It is kind of a consolation that she won in the movie, although reading the legal troubles about getting her fee must have made the victory sour.

The story happens in 1989 in the suburbs of Budapest, where the neighbor maintains an underground worker's guard training base, while the youngsters fall victim to a mistakenly posted letter.

In the small village of Rátót, every male is called Béla. When a woman gives birth to her child, she names him Józsi...

In the box factory standing in the middle of nowhere only women work, and they themselves only waste their time, as the unmarketable boxes pile up in the yards. The fireman in duty, who stores stolen gasoline in the inflammable plant, sets up cameras in the women's locker room the sake of 'business'.

The movie is set in the actual "Ki Mit Tud?" talent contest in 1962. In reality the contest in dance music category was won by an army brass band. "Omega" which later became one of the most successful Hungarian rock bands came out in the second place.

In the open-air cinema-like scenery domestic rock bands get time for a short movie clip each, linked by an also short musical frame-play. Each of the altogether eighteen clips is a whole film etude playing with visual-lingual associations, film ideas, revealing the back-thought of the songs, and on the whole sometimes melancholicly, sometimes ironically the hopeless, sad picture of the era can be distinguished.

Defoe, lacking fantasy of his own takes home the drunkard sailor from the pub and lets him tell his stories on the uninhabited island.

The 50 years old Ferenc rents an apartment on the Balaton beach, but it has a lot of debt on it. His plan is to make it profitable.

A divorced middle-aged woman takes home an ardent suitor, only to discover that he prefers her teenage son. The mother is an overworked coffee-shop attendant, the suitor turns out to be a plain-clothes policeman and the boy is a frustrated flautist.

One day, two unsuccessful rock musicians, Ede and Zaki, come across a competition. To commemorate the anniversary of the Institute for the Blind, they have to write a musical piece for the blind. Since there are no other candidates, they get the job. In two nights they put the piece together. However to their great disappointment, they find that they also have to teach the blind kids to perform it, if they want to get the money. Unwillingly they are submerged into the world of the blind; just like the spectator. While Zaki works on the musical in a studio, Ede starts rehearsing with the blind youths. A strange competition starts among the blind girls. They all fall in love with Ede, and the blonde Edith makes up her mind to approach him. But he fails as a director. He has no idea how to handle these people, so he soon gives up. However...

When the home where they grew up and spent the best days of their childhood is threatened, a group of kids bands together to try and save it.

Near-broke and desperate, Hungarian entrepreneur Feri decides to put a sleazy spin on tourism. After leasing a Lake Balaton boarding house, he moves in his gang -- wife, nephew, daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend -- and then sets out to scam unsuspecting German tourists.

In December 1956 there is a chaotic situation in Hungary. The revolution is put down by the Soviet army. People leave the country in large numbers for fear of revenge. A young soldier (György Angeli) who also took a part in the revolution, takes a train to Vienna together with his friend (Dániel Szerencsés). Written by Tamas Patrovics