2017 Cannes Film Festival: Hungarians at the Gate

Cannes has been good to Hungarian films in recent years, with efforts like Son of Saul, which of course won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2015. In this, the 70th incarnation of the Cannes Film Festival, we see three Hungarian films entered in three different categories.

In the main competition, we find director Kornél Mundruczó’s feature Jupiter's Moon. The director is no stranger to Cannes, with his last feature White God winning the Un Certain Regard prize in 2014. A magic realist tale that follows the friendship of a refugee and a Hungarian local, Jupiter's Moon is the director’s fifth (fifth!) trip to the festival. He was quoted in the Budapest Business Journal as saying  “Jupiter’s Moon is set in a world where we have lost our moral handles/grip. We are falling. We have forgotten to look outside. In the Europe of our ages, amidst such life-changing situations as the refugee crisis, we have no compass for making the appropriate decisions. I am the most interested in whether there is a mutual belief that could tie us together. Is there salvation? What can give us hope in the worst of times?”

Screenshot from Jupiter's Moon via Screen Daily

Indiewire gave high praise to the film’s direction and cinematography (by Marcell Rév): “Even the film’s lone car chase is a breathless experience, as Rév and Mundruczó strap a camera on the hood of a high-powered sedan and lead us on a winding, high-speed drive that always seems framed for maximum impact. These people are the film’s true miracle workers, and they could turn Hollywood upside down if given half a chance (a Marvel movie backed by this sort of talent would be a genuine game-changer).”

In the Un Certain Regard category, we can find Out, by Hungarian/Slovak György Kristóf. Out features an ethnic Hungarian/Slovak engineer who leaves home for Latvia to look for a better life, and some good fishing. There he lands work in a shipyard, and has to deal with xenophobia and a taxidermied rabbit. It is Kristof’s debut feature film. Daily Variety praised the pic’s performances, humor and look, saying “The visuals are among the film’s strongest suit.”

Screenshot from Out via the Czech Film Center

Finally, the short Invisibly by Áron Szentpéteri was selected as one of the sixteen film school films in the Cinéfondation category. The Hungarian National Film Fund, which also provided much of the funding for Jupiter’s Moon, describes the film as such: “Two everyday people meet in the dark. The darkness of an invisible exhibition. Through the film we follow them as they get closer and move apart from each other by crossing blurry boundaries. Boundaries that exist between and within people and are mostly invisible. Not only for the blind.” Szentpéteri attends the famous Hungarian University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest.

Prizes will be announced on May 26, 27 and 28. Good luck to all the films - especially the Hungarian ones - being screened at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.