Éva Ruttkai

Peter Gothar films give a sharp, uncensored view of the society. This film is no different. The plot is rather simple: a family goes to vacation with the usual stress. Then on the vacation the wife gets a strange kind of sickness and they go back to Budapest for a cure. While the wife is in the hospital, the husband visits his family. This is quite banal. However the scenario was written by Peter Esterhazy, one of the most influential contemporary writers in Hungary. His style uses a lot of surrealism but in a way that profoundly illuminates the reality. In this film, the reality is an atomized society where the so-called communist ideals are nowhere so everyday people are fully disoriented.

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The protagonist was sent to South America after the war. Now he is back home and wants to meet his old love. At the same time, he takes on the job of looking after his in-laws' children, two very bad boys, while their parents are on holiday abroad. What will become of it? Anyone who meets the "fantastic aunt" at the beginning of the film, as well as Huba and Csaba, will have an inkling.

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The film director starts shooting his film about the manager of a large corporation who committed suicide for mysterious reasons. As the cumbersome process of making a film goes along, everybody involved in it starts having differing opinions of the tragedy, its causes and its victim.

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An unsentimental Hungarian film about the edgy relationship between a middle-aged woman and her young, restless daughter-in-law when the son-husband goes to sea for six months.

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This film describes the narrator's childhood, the years before and after the Hungarian Soviet Republic, in a burlesque and fabulous style and with the humour of a child's fantasy.

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Based on the stories of Hungarian writer Gyula Krúdy, this film is a lush and sensuous depiction of the life, loves and memories of serial seducer Szindbád. As the protagonist looks back on his life, past and present, imagination and reality flow inseparably into one another.

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The two main characters of this ironic account of the general condition of intellectuals are the charming psychologist, Korin György, and the unexpected. Korin starts a television series of people in their 40s. In the afternoon just after the first section, however, he is reported to be dead as a result of a rather strange accident. Everything turns upside down.

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The film is a story of a double journey. The main character of the first journey is the author himself, who, while sitting in his customary café, suddenly realises that he has hallucinations. The psychologist reassures him that all this is merely repression. The symptoms, however, appear again. Soon it turns out that the author has a brain tumour. Professor Pötzl in Vienna suggests operation right away. The intervention, through which he is awake, is carried out in a Stockholm clinic.

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It is a musical comedy about the difficulties of forced education. Kati is scheduled to learn agriculture though she is a lot more interested in maths.

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Ferenc Molnár's cartoons, published in various newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s, were not originally intended for performance. The producers of the show brought them to life with great authorial ideas and sparkling dialogues. Some of the scenes, which touch on the bourgeois life of the time in Pest, may be relevant to today's Pest, and promise to entertain the audience.

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A young man has his hepatic duct replaced with a plastic tube after an accident but starts to get worried how this will affect his manliness.

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Klári and Géza have been married for many years. They spend the weekend in their cottage, and in the beautiful, calm autumn weather, Klári climbs up to the roof to reflect on her life here, close to the sky. Memories and impressions from the past come flooding back, and inevitably the present is also weighed up. First, of course, Géza and their relationship. Soon Géza comes to the roof, overcoming his fear of heights. Géza's opportunistic, conflict-avoidant nature encourages him to sweep problems under the carpet, and he is perplexed by his wife's criticism. He seems to have won the day when a mysterious hand reaches up from the attic and closes the attic door...

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A light comedy of four love-stories. Mary's search for happiness has always been influenced by history. Her first husband, Halász, makes his point with two slaps in an argument and Mary wants a divorce immediately. But this is not enough to get a divorce, so she asks her boss, Endre Horváth, to prove Maria's adultery by perjury. After a few years, Mari is questioned by the couple about her divorce, but then Comrade Bor comes to her rescue and eventually marries the pretty woman. However, László Bor soon goes to prison and is the victim of a plane crash. Pál Zalán, a journalist, is the woman's soul mate...

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The story unfolds using the Lajtai operetta The Old Summer. The son of landowner János Pataki comes from Sweden to visit his father in Budapest for a month's holiday. The parents are divorced because of a prima donna, and the mother warns her son against operettas and Buda pubs. The young Pataki, with the help of his father, enters the theatre world...

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This romantic and grandiose historical film depicts the era of the constant incursions and heroic battles fought by the defenders of the castle of Eger, led by captain István Dobó, against the heavy odds of superior numbers through the lives and love of Bornemissza Gergely and Cecey Éva. Gergely is inaugurated as a fighter already at the age of 7, when he escapes the captivity of the half-eyed Turk, Jumurdzsak, with Vica and the war-booty. In thirty years' time he becomes the first assistant of captain Dobó and the brain of the castle in the defence of Eger.

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Végh Márta, the teacher is looking for her student Vadász Ica in the Buda villa, but she only finds the tenant, Mrs. Paár - dead. The investigation reveals that Mrs. Paár was murdered for an invaluable stamp, the "Fake Isabella".

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A 40-year-old sculptor returns home to witness the baptism of his young nephew. His return prompts a series of flashbacks to his youth and the political upheaval experienced by his family and friends.

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Zsuzsa, Éva and Jolán decide to divorce their husbands. Their attorney is the young Vera who visits the husbands one after the other with the enthusiasm of dealing with the very first case. The bafflement of the sanguine Péter, the materialistic Sándor and the indolent Bálint lasts only for a few moments; after that, they all fall in love with the pretty lawyer.

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Barta has been investigating for a year in the murder case of a professor of medicine. Keller, the victim, has been shot dead in his own villa. Barta joins the closest relatives and they all travel to Dunaszentmárton by ship for the inaugural ceremony of his tomb.

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On the novel by Mór Jókai. The first half of the XVIII century. Several decades of life of a noble family Karpati.

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The celebrated actor considers his wife a nitwits actress of a mediocre talent. But an influential playwright, a friend of theirs, has written a play with the main role designed for her, Kati, particularly. Its title is "The Most Intelligent Woman in the World". On the day of the first night performance Kati recalls their past, the times she had together with her husband.

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On the novel by Mór Jókai. The first half of the XVIII century. Several decades of life of a noble family Karpati.

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A priest who has been set free from prison recently joins a spy organization.

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Jirka is a composer, his wife, Jana, a pianist. Jana would like to have an own concert, but so far she has only been selected to accompany Valenta during his concerts in Budapest. After some resentments, she accepts the proposal.

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Mihály Zágon has been struggling with his conservative mother-in-law for a long time. Now, that his wife is pregnant, the old woman wants Piroska to stay in bed. Mihály is elected to be the president of the co-operative, but nobody is happy about this back home. His wife often pretends to be ill to keep him by her side.

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On the eve of World War II, Major Benedek Zoltán is an embodiment of the service regulations in the army. He only discloses his feelings towards Anna, his brother's widow. An investigation is conducted in the regiment to identify Communists.

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The film consists of 3 novellas. 1. On the eve of the Soviet advance into Hungary, workers at a military plant risk everything to strike in defiance, displaying unwavering courage and solidarity. 2. During a fierce battle, three Soviet soldiers shelter in a peasant’s hut where a dying mother begs them to baptize her newborn - an act of compassion they fulfill, leaving behind three stars from their caps as a lasting gift. 3. After liberating a Hungarian town, Soviet troops rescue a hidden throng of civilians, huddled in underground tunnels, from imminent Nazi brutality, saving countless lives in the process.

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During the freedom fight led by Rákóczi, Schwartzenau carries the wages of the Emperor's soldiers to Tokaj. A small group of freedom-fighters, led by Captain Árvay, attack the major's escort, then hide in the local inn. Árvay introduces himself to the entering Schartzenau as a Hungarian aristocrat, while Simon Pali rushes to get help. The major has a passion for games, they start throwing dice.

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The "sleepless years" in this propaganda piece by director Felix Marlassy occur on Csepel Island, an island south of Budapest that is home to an armaments factory. The factory workers are shown being exploited by imperialists, capitalists gone berserk, and fascists, more or less in that exact chronological sequence. The heavy-handed approach does much to undercut the belief that when socialism finally takes over, the lives of the workers are brought up to a human level. In this instance, audiences might prefer a more nuanced and subtle statement, no matter what the message.

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Antal Tőrös, teacher of mathematics, does not like and trust people. No wonder he is not liked by anybody, either. Only his colleague, Klára takes a liking to him. Tőrös is in love with her, and to prove this, he tries to forget about his previous life-philosophy.

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In 1944, Feri Margittai escapes from the front, but his mother sends him away from home.

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On New Year's Eve in 1956 the artist couple, the actor János and the dancer Viki are hastily packing. While they are waiting for the car, which is to take them across the border, their entire life is replayed in front of their eyes.

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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.

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