
Hungarian evening; Projections of the motion pictures “Three thousand numbered pieces” And ”Without air”
THREE THOUSAND NUMBERED PIECES / HUNGARY / 2023 / 1h 36min.
Director: Ádám Császi
Writers: Franciska Farkas, Kristóf Horváth, Christopher Pászik
Stars: Kelvin Acquah, Ágota Benedek, Dávid Csányi
Short synopsis: A white Hungarian director rehearses a play with five young Roma actors. His play tells their real-life stories of abuse, drug addiction, and crime. However, instead of representing the truth of their experiences, it only capitalizes on their pain and exploits them. The actors quit the play, only to find that their white director has already sold the show to Berlin’s biggest theatre and the premiere is looming. Their rehearsals turn into a surreal exploration of racism and white guilt, blurring the lines between fiction and reality – and the play and the film itself. The film features an all-Roma creative team and is based on an actual play written by them about their real-life stories, presented in Deutsches Theater, Berlin. It asks the question of whether left-wing white intellectuals trying to help people of color actually end up helping to perpetuate systemic racism. Can the artistic representation of Romas, the biggest ethnic minority of Europe, ever be done without falling back on racist stereotypes?
WITHOUT AIR by Katalin Moldovai / HUNGARY / 2023 / 105min.
Director: Katalin Moldovai
Writers: Katalin Moldovai, Zita Palozci
Stars: Agnes Krasznarhokai, Tunde Skorvan, Aron Dimeny
Short synopsis: In a small Hungarian town, Ana Bauch (Ágnes Krasznahorkai) is a dedicated and liberal-minded literature teacher within the public system. Beloved by her students for her unorthodox and creative approach, she assigns Agnieszka Holland’s 1995 Total Eclipse, depicting the relationship between 19th-century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, so they can better understand Rimbaud’s poetry. When a conservative father interrupts his son Victor (Soma Sándor) during the screening and hears of the assignment, he reports Ana to the school’s principal (Tünde Skovrán). Ana is accused of misconduct and spreading homosexual propaganda, and when the local media get wind of the brewing scandal, she faces even more scrutiny. In a system within which many have given up, Ana must decide to fight or to flee — perhaps to a restaurant job abroad.
Regardless of the verdict, a good teacher is life-changing, and what Ana instills in her pupils ripples beyond classroom lessons. Touching on education, isolationism, and brain drain — all in the face of rising fascism — writer-director Katalin Moldovai unfolds a bold debut, capturing her nation’s climate (which Ana, unlike her country’s president, doesn’t deny is undergoing an ecological crisis) and directly challenging the regime in which rationality and reason are under attack and freedom of expression — public and private — is actively repressed.