A Hungarian Abroad: The Spectacular Life of Arthur Koestler

via Wikipedia Commons By Eric Koch / Anefo - Nationaal Archief, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Hungarian writers are widely respected within their own country, but the truth is that only a minority break out beyond these borders into world-wide fame. One author who managed to achieve international recognition – and indeed – become part of the Western canon of literature, is Arthur Koestler (born Kösztler Artur in Budapest in the year 1905).  It would be nice to tout Koestler’s Hungarian upbringing as a huge influence on his body of work, but the writer, in his formative years, was educated mostly in Austria, and Germany. He spent much of his later life in Israel and Western Europe, and finally Great Britain, where he died in 1983.

Like most famous Hungarians, Koestler was adventurous and traveled widely, leaving his homeland behind early on. Just months before graduating from technical university, Koestler burned his school records, grades, test scores and all, making graduation impossible. Not long after this reckless act of youth, he hit the road, eventually landing in the former Palestine, where he was able to make an occasional living as a journalist. Along the way, Koestler became attracted to the Communist cause, and upon return to Europe in 1931, joined the Communist Party of Germany. With a life-long taste for danger and fairness, Koestler traveled to Paris then Spain to fight against Franco’s fascist regime. While working as a correspondent, he was captured, imprisoned, and sentenced to death, making him one of the few literary greats to have experienced death row. Freed under a prisoner swap, Koestler would later write about his experiences awaiting execution in his book Dialogue with Death.

In keeping with his non-traditional route to literary fame, Koestler penned a highly successful ‘sex dictionary’ called The Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge. But the sexual hi-jinks were just a cover for Koestler’s real work: it would not be long until he set to work on Darkness at Noon, his scathing look at the atrocities committed by Stalin in the name of Socialism. So inflammatory was the material that the manuscript had to be smuggled out of France, and into England, where it found its first publication. The book was incredibly influential in shaping Western attitudes towards the Soviet Union, and has since been recognized as a classic.

Koestler wrote numerous other books, and continued to be politically active throughout his entire life. Authors like Salmon Rushdie cite him as an influence in their work. Koestler was a life-long believer in Zionism and progressive causes like the banning of the death penalty, and even animal rights. Decisive, fearless, pragmatic: he took his own life when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Koestler died in  England in a double suicide with his wife in 1983. His influence is still felt today, and a statue of him was recently erected on Andrássy Avenue, paying tribute to a native son who found fame abroad.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Olympic Dreams: Bid Video Still Golden

By © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.

Hungary is traditionally a strong competitor in summer Olympic games. For a small country, Hungary excels at multiple sports. Its greatest accomplishments have come in fencing, which enjoys a long tradition in Hungary. For a long time, the country was also dominant in water polo, and routinely offers winning swimmers and canoers. The country even competed in the inaugural 1896 Games and has sent athletes to most Olympics since.

According to Wikipedia, “Hungary has won more Olympic medals than any other existing nation that has never hosted the Games and has the second highest all time number of gold medals per capita of any nation behind only Finland.”

That’s a pretty big accomplishment. While it’s been some time since Budapest learned it didn’t make the final round to host the 2024 Olympics, that’s no reason not to continue to promote the Olympic bid video, which showcases so many great aspects of life and culture in Budapest. The video doesn’t directly promote the sports Hungary is good at, but rather the culture of Budapest, which is active and textured. Here you have street ballerinas, restaurant scenes, and if cafe culture were an Olympic sport, for sure we would win the gold.

So despite not bringing home the 2024 games to Budapest, it’s fair to say the video brings glory to the city. Enjoy below, with a groovy soundtrack by Hungarian pop band Mary PopKids.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Game of Thrones: the Hungarian Connections

Anybody who has an interest in the fantasy genre, or is up on the best series of the past decade, has seen or read Game of Thrones. And if you are new to the books, and have a passing knowledge of Hungarian, you will note a few Hungarian names in the opening chapters, most notably ‘Sándor,’ which is the Hungarian version of Alexander. While there is no evidence author George R.R. Martin had a past with Hungary that he wanted to memorialize, it wouldn’t be the first time a fantasy writer appropriated the mystical atmosphere attributed to Hungary. No other than JK Rowling named a breed of dragon the ‘Hungarian Horntail.’

Though the series wasn’t shot here, because the local film industry has over the years been so successful in attracting foreign productions, many of the stars from Game of Thrones have spent time in Budapest filming other projects. Most prominently Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo, a character with ruthless Attila the Hun-like qualities, was in Budapest more than once in recent years.

Momoa was brought to Budapest for the filming of the remake of Dune, which is scheduled for release in September of this year. The actor was here even during the pandemic, as late as August 2020. While in Budapest, Momoa took advantage of all the city had to offer, and posted many snaps of him and his family in front of touristed sites like the Basilica and Parliament. But Momoa took away a piece of Budapest that few visiting stars can also claim: he got tattooed here.

Momoa and family in front of Parliament via Instagram

Momoa plays a heavy in the series, but it turns out, a group of Hungarian actors working as stand-ins took many of the hits in battle scenes, winning a SAG award for their work. Hungary Today reports: “Stand-ins playing in HBO’s fantasy drama series Game of Thrones have won the US Screen Actors Guild’s prize for their oustanding stunt performance for the fourth time in a row since 2012. Hungarian Domonkos Párdányi and his team are among this year’s winners, and for many of them, this is already the second SAG Award during their career. Mr. Párdányi, who stood in for Brad Pitt in the film Troy, was doubling Christian Bale in Exodus during the shooting of the fourth season, meaning that he is not among those awarded.”

So, while Game of Thrones was not indeed filmed in Hungary, like with many pop culture franchises today, Hungary left its mark.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Natural Light to Shine in Berlin

The Berlin International Film Festival, to be held in early March, will continue its reputation for showcasing challenging European cinema, with the premier of Hungarian Dénes Nagy’s feature Natural Light (Természetes fény). This marks the first full-length narrative film by the writer/director, whose previous shorts include documentaries Harm and Another Hungary. His TV documentary short, Soft Rain, premiered at the Cannes Festival’s 2013 Directors’ Fortnight.

As per the film festival’s website, the summary of Natural Light is as follows: World War II, occupied Soviet Union. István Semetka is a simple Hungarian farmer who serves as a Caporal in a special unit scouting for partisan groups. On their way to a remote village, his company falls under enemy fire. As the commander is killed, Semetka has to overcome his fears and take command of the unit as he is dragged into a chaos that he cannot control.

In his director’s statement (via Daily Variety) Nagy commented: “I wanted to observe a man who is not fully aware of what choices he must face. What are the things that lead him to becoming part of a killing? What choices he didn’t make on the way? This is interesting for me. And there is no clear answer to this. We think that we have acquired a clear judgment about things around us, we believe that we know what’s our task in life. The film wants to question this image of ourselves. It wants to show how fragile this image is.”

Daily Variety calls the trailer for the film ‘shocking’, and in its review of Natural Light, singles out the cinematography for praise: “Tamás Dobos’ majestically composed cinematography elicits detached admiration, its stillness furthering the sense of entrapment.”

All in all, this is an impressive start for the film, which will see a broader release later in the year. Below find the trailer for Natural Light, complete with English language subtitles.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Vanished Budapest: An Animated Look at the Past

Some believe history isn’t static, but a living breathing thing.

It was our luck to stumble upon the two videos below, which feature old shots of Budapest that have been animated by the wizards of Animatiqua, an animation/film/design studio in Budapest. Each video presents structures in Budapest that were either destroyed in war or torn down to make way for something more modern. The animation, which is subtle and elegant, breathes life into the past, and gives the viewer a glimpse into Budapest’s rich architectural history.

According to Daily News Hungary, you will find, “among other things, the old National Theater in all its splendor, as well as the Hungária Nagyszálló on the quay of Pest, the old Elizabeth Bridge, the St. Demeter Church in Döbrentei Square, Kálvin Square and Lloyd Palace, which was the most beautiful classicist-style palace in the capital.”

But it’s one thing to talk about the past, it’s another to experience it. So, with no further delay, enjoy this window on vanished Budapest:

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

The Return of the Undesirable: A Hungarian Classic Found

The history of film in Hungary is almost as long as the history of film itself. This is a nation that prides itself on its record of technical innovations and challenging narrative techniques. The country’s rich cinematic past twines with its technology-savvy present now that the reels of Michael Curtiz’s A Tolonc (The Undesirable) has been restored and digitally remastered at Budapest’s National Digital Archive and Film Institute.

The Undesirable is one of the many lost films of Hungary’s golden age of silent film, and represents one of the first directorial efforts from Michael Curtiz, who went on to achieve international fame as the director of such films as Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, and The Jazz Singer. His hundred-year-old silent film was discovered in the basement of the Hungarian House, a cultural center in New York City. How it got there is still unknown, but great efforts have been made to return the film to its homeland. The undertaking of returning and restoring the film, at a cost of close to 50,000 Euro, was funded by the Hungarian National Film Foundation, and overseen by Terminator and Rambo producer, and HNFF head honcho, the late Andrew Vajna.

Curtiz, born Manó Kaminer Kertész, shot the film in 1914 in the then Hungarian-ruled city of Kolozsvár, (now also known as Cluj-Napoca, Romania). Shooting for the film was completed in the summer before the outbreak of WWI. There is evidence that the film was shown in the United States in the 1920s. This would make it one of Hungary’s first releases into the US market.

Some years back there was a theatrical showing in Budapest to celebrate the film’s 100 year anniversary, offering a fine homecoming for a film that spent so long abroad. These days, you can find scenes from the remastered A Tolonc posted on You Tube. We saved you the trouble of looking that up, and posted one very well-restored scene below.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Szatmári Szilva Heads East: The Hungarian Plum Set To Conquer Japan

via https://www.agrarszektor.hu/

Szatmári szilva lekvár, or Szatmári plum jam, is a product that falls into the category known as ‘Hungaricum,’ or, things that have a strong national Hungarian identity. Paprika from around Szeged, and Bikavér, or Bull’s Blood wine, are other examples. Szatmári plum jam originates in historically Hungarian Transylvania. The town of Szatmár in Romanian is Satu Mare. Szatmár is also a county in Hungary. Close to each other geographically, both offer Szatmár plum jams.

The tradition of plum-jam making in the Szatmár region dates back hundreds of years. The special plums are known for being both small and packed with flavour, making them popular for use in the Hungarian fruit brandy pálinka, as well as the famous Szatmár jam. It’s the jam that has taken the interest of a Japanese importer, who has ordered a ton of the product after discovering it at the Foodex Japanese food industry exhibition for the first time in 2019.

Plums are popular fruit in Japan, but there is as of yet no jam similar to the rich Szatmári plum jam in the country. Nor are there many plum jams anywhere much like the Szatmári plum: the jam is cooked over a long period of time — sometimes days — until it has a dense consistency and flavour some compare to a rich chocolate paste. Its uniqueness is also attributed to the method by which it is cooked: using ‘dry preservation’ then cooking in a copper cauldron. The sweetness comes from the plum itself: traditionally there is no sugar added to the jams.

With their love of delicate pastries, we can only imagine what the Japanese will make of it when they try szilva gömböc, or famous—and delicious—Hungarian plum dumplings. As for the pálinka, we are keeping it for ourselves.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Hungary's Oscar Nomination: “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time"

In the reent years, Hungary has made a strong showing in the Best International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards, with On Body and Soul making the final round, and Son of Saul winning the statue. This year’s official nomination was announced earlier this month: director Lili Horvath’s drama Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time.

Due to the pandemic, the film has had a quieter opening than other recently lauded Hungarian films, but has done well on the virtual festival circuit, winning multiple international awards. According to Hungarianinsider.com, “The film was screened with great success at the end of the summer at the Venice and then Toronto film festivals. In Antalya, Natasa Stork won the Best Actress award, and in Warsaw, the film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize by the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics. She also won the grand prize “Gold Hugo” (Arany Hugó) at the longest-running festival in Chicago and returned home with three trophies from the highly prestigious Valladolid Film Festival in Spain. The film, set on the border of reality and imagination, won the Best Feature Film Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival as well.”

Rogerebert.com, in a glowing review, summarises the film as such: “Exemplary neurosurgeon Márta Vizy (Natasa Stork), for whom reality is increasingly becoming elusive, flies back home to Hungary from the U.S. after 20 years. Her return isn't prompted by a longing for homeland or even family, so much as a love pact she made with a fellow Hungarian doctor named János (Viktor Bodó) after they met and fell in love at a convention in New Jersey. The deal was to meet at Liberty Bridge in Budapest a month later. She kept the promise, he didn't. Instead of coming to terms with the ill-advised impulse behind traveling half the world for a spontaneous rendezvous with a stranger, Márta searches for János, only to learn he doesn’t recognize her.”

Natasa Stork

Reviews elsewhere, including in the New York Times, have for the most part been enviable. Daily Variety wrote: “Slippery, supple and sinuous, Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s deliciously reworked psychological noir is a spiral staircase, polished to a glossy shine, down which unreliable motivations, self-delusions and romantic obsessions tumble in gorgeous 35mm.” It goes on to praise — as many other publications have — the work of DP Róbert Maly. “The mood of ‘Preparations…’ is established by DP Róbert Maly’s striking 35mm cinematography, with its warm grain and textural response to color.”

This is only Horvát’s second feature. Her first, Szerdai Gyerek (The Wednesday Child) also performed well, winning awards at Karlovy Vary and multiple other festivals. Only time will tell if '“Preparations…” will have Oscar success. Either way, the film is a rare crowd-pleaser that was also embraced by critics. The Oscar winners will be revealed at the presentation ceremony on April 25 in Los Angeles.

Below, find the trailer for Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time in Hungarian with English language subtitles.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Hungarians in Hollywood: Steven Bognar and "American Factory"

Screenshot via Youtube

It’s not news that there are deep Hungarian roots running through Hollywood: from William Fox, the founder of 20th Century Fox, up to Jaimie Lee Curtis. But beyond the glitz of movie stars and feature films, Hungarians have also found success in the prestigious world of documentary filmmaking. You need only look as far as last year’s Oscars, where the son of Hungarian immigrants won Best Documentary Feature, along with his wife, Julia Reichert, for "American Factory.”

Like many Hungarians, Bognar’s immigrant parents found their way to the Midwest of the United States, first to Milwaukee and then Ohio, where Bognar’s late father, Bela J. Bognar, was a Professor at Wright State University. (He was known as ‘Professor Paprika’ to his students.)

Steven Bognar’s first feature length documentary, “Personal Belongings,” relates his father’s story: of his life in Hungary and the travails of World War II. “American Factory”, on the other hand, focuses on a General Motors factory in Moraine, Ohio, that was subsequently bought by the Chinese. According to The Atlantic: In 2014, Fuyao bought part of a closed General Motors assembly plant in Ohio and created thousands of jobs, revitalizing a local industrial sector that had fallen on desperately hard times when GM left town during the 2008 recession. American Factory charts the wave of exultation that greeted the arrival of Fuyao, followed by culture clashes, growing pains, and eventually forms of internal and external pushback that had been largely unknown to the company. “

The film struck a chord with viewers who are growing suspicious of the American Dream and ‘late-stage’ capitalism. The Atlantic went on to describe it as ‘captivating.’ Indeed, it before it won the Oscar, it won the respect of critics. The New York Times wrote: “American Factory” is political without being self-servingly didactic or strident, connecting the sociopolitical dots intelligently…”

American Factory premiered 2019 Sundance Festival and has been enjoying huge popularity on Netflix. Surprisingly, it was produced by former US president and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, through their production company, Higher Ground Productions. With another Hungarian twist, the Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary was presented by Hungarian actor Géza Röhrig, of Son of Saul fame.

Steven Bognar’s latest documentary is 9to5: The Story of a Movement (also made with Reichert), which revolves around an organisation dedicated to ensuring the rights of working women and and their families.

Below find the trailer for American Factory, which is still playing on Netflix.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Way Back Machine: Budapest from Before

Once and a while a video showcasing the beauty and romance of Budapest comes along that is too irresistible not to share. But this one is truly rare: A colorized travel clip from 1938. This is – of course – interwar Budapest, and things were about to change dramatically for the country and city. But as much as they changed, and will continue to change, it is amazing just what has stayed the same. Keep an eye out for gorgeous shots of Parliament, Pest’s shopping boulevards, mineral water spas, the Chain Bridge, the Hotel Gellért and its artificial wave contraption, and the views of the Danube.

Now which was your favorite part? Ours was definitely the whole thing.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Filmed in Hungary: Grizzly II, Revenge

It’s hard to imagine a film that stars a young George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, and Laura Dern would go unfinished for 37 years, but that’s what happened with Grizzly II: Revenge. The partially made film, which was the stuff of Hollywood lore, was finally completed and released this year, after Hungarian producer Suzanne C. Nagy was able to finish the task she started so long ago.

But that’s getting ahead. Grizzly II is the sequel to Grizzly, a surprise smash-hit horror film that capitalized on the trend for deadly clawed and fanged animals, instigated by the film Jaws. For a reason that is still undisclosed in the media — but probably based on Nagy’s Hungarian connections — Grizzly II was shot in Socialist-era Hungary, making it one of the few (only?) Hollywood films to utilise Hungary as a location at that time. Local director André Szöts was called in to helm, a cast of English speaking actors—including Clooney, Sheen, and Dern— was flown over, a 16-foot mechanical grizzly bear/monster was assembled, and history was made.

The plot revolves around a Woodstock-like music festival held in the forrest, where a dangerous ‘devil-bear’ picks off concertgoers before it can be hunted and stopped. The producers actually organized a real rock festival for Hungarian youth, enlisting metal band Nazareth to perform in front of a 50,000 strong crowd.

It’s hard to pin down what went wrong with the production: there were reports of missing funds, of the mechanical bear constantly breaking down, of off-screen pressures from the secret police, that contributed to the film’s abandonment. Along the way, the original writer/director was replaced, as was Vilmos Zsigmond, who was first tipped as cinematographer. Ultimately, it took thirty-something years for a pirated rough cut to start making the rounds among horror afficionados. With much of the film already out there, Nagy had the film re-cut, and additional footage added, so as to make an official release of Grizzly II: Revenge. While the film has not exactly wowed critics, that’s hardly the point.

Though Grizzly II may have rode the coat-tails of films like Jaws and Piranha, it was way ahead of its time in using Hungary as a stand-in for another location: this one being an American national park. Yet, due to circumstances, this bear was trapped behind the Iron Curtain, until now. Nagy can also take some credit for opening avenues between Hollywood and Hungary, as she told film site theringer.com: “There was a hope, a wonderful idea, that the Hungarian film industry was going to be noticeable,” Nagy says of the early ’80s. “[The country] wanted a lot from me. I’d be opening a gate to Hollywood.”

So, as they say, all’s well that ends well.

Enjoy this trailer for Grizzly II: Revenge

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Hungarian Classic Now World Classic: Journey By Moonlight Seduces Literati

Antal Szerb’s novel Journey By Moonlight is not be regarded by many to be Hungary’s greatest novel. It’s not the most erudite, decorated, or well known. But it is the favorite of any number of Hungarian romantics, and increasingly, of foreigners who came to the book in translation. While the British have been enjoying the Len Rix translation for many years, the novel was only released in America a few years back, by the ultra prestigious New York Review of Books.

It’s hard to overstate the effect Journey By Moonlight has on a certain type of reader (the same sort who obsess over The Secret History, or Master and Margarita). In its day, back in its day (published in 1937) it was rumoured to have incited more than one suicide.

The story follows a young man named Mihály on his honeymoon and eventual abandonment of his wife Erzsi, when the ghosts, both literal and figurative, of his past surface in locations across Italy. With its morbid, magnetic, and simultaneous attractions to love and death, Journey by Moonlight is easily compared to Death in Venice. But Journey by Moonlight is more pastoral, bubbling over with sticky sweet, but ultimately fatal nostalgia for youth and lost love; it actually has a lot in common with Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border West of the Sun.

Perhaps Journey by Moonlight has never been fully embraced as Hungary’s greatest novel because it was not based in Hungary. Antal Szerb was truly a novelist of the world, setting his first effort The Pendragon Legend in England, Journey by Moonlight in Italy, and Oliver VII in an imaginary European country. Unlike other Hungarian writers, his love of country was never expressed through meditations on Hungarian society, or via revolutionary poetry. Much like his stories, his patriotism was somehow not bound to such terrestrial conventions. A lot of good his subtlety did him; as an ethnic Jew, he was forced by the Hungarian facist Arrow Cross into a labor camp in 1944. Antal Szerb died before age 45, at the hands of his own countrymen. It should be pointed out that Szerb was given many chances to emigrate, even while he was enduring the degradations of labor camp, but he refused to leave his family and fellow writers behind. Unlike his protagonist, he never surrendered his ideals in the face of an uncaring and brutal world. He died the quiet death of an unsung hero. The world of literature is vastly richer for his brief journey through its midst.

Antal Szerb via Wikipedia

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Krampus: The Christmas Devil

It’s that time of year again, when everybody’s favorite Christmas celebrity makes house-calls to special children. We are, of course, not talking about St. Nick; that would be too obvious. Rather, it is time to celebrate the Krampus: Santa’s grotesque strong man. In North America, Santa leaves coal in naughty children’s stockings. In Central Europe,  St. Nick is too busy passing out gifts to bother with his ‘naughty’ list.  He  employs a devilish little character known as ‘Krampus’ to do his dirty work. Krampus, who looks something like a sooty demon, invades homes, kidnaps children who were ‘naughty’, stuffs them in his bag and steals them away to a fiery neither world below, never to be seen again. Santa’s elf, he is not.

The Krampus, while an important aspect of Christmas in Hungary, actually originates in the more Germanic climes near the Alps. He is especially popular in Austria, where many cities and towns hold yearly parades of men dressed in Krampus costume, wielding gilded switches with which to swat the behind of anybody who stands too close. Traditionally, Krampus is represented by a devil-like mask, long horns, a dangling lizard tongue, and cloven hooves.  Believed to a hold-over of the region’s Pagan past, Halloween can also be traced to the same rural tradition of animal and monster masks.

Krampus has long been a regular tradition in Central Europe (showing up on December 6th), but he is beginning to gain exposure in America as well. Recently, Krampus made an appearance on the Colbert Report, the popular political satire show, and Krampus parades have been held in more liberal cities like Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California. Given how anti-septic and commercial most American Christmas traditions have become, it is no surprise that people crave a little darkness and ill-spirit around the holidays. As you will note: December 6th has passed this year, but be sure to be good, or Krampus will have you on his list next time around.

Below find some of the sexier Krampuses (Krampi?) from last year’s Krampus Festival in Munich, Germany.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Filmed in Hollywood: Budapest!

Usually in this space you will find us harping on the fact that Budapest is used as a location to represent so many other cities. But we know of at least one film where Budapest was recreated abroad – on a Hollywood lot, no less. Starring It’s A Wonderful Life actor James Stewart, we are referring, of course, to is the 1940 comedy A Shop Around the Corner.

In the pic, Stewart plays Alfred Kralik, an employee of a Budapest gift shop who doesn’t realize that he is falling in love with his nemesis at the shop via anonymous love letters they send to one another. Why, when the screenplay was written by an American, and the film’s primary players were all American – did they choose Budapest as the setting? It’s because the film is based on the stage play Parfumerie, by Hungarian Miklós Laszló.

If the plot to A Shop Around the Corner sounds familiar, it is because Laszló’s play was used as the basis for two other subsequent films: In the Good Old Summertime, and most recently, the Tom Hanks/ Meg Ryan vehicle You’ve Got Mail. The script was also adapted for the Broadway musical She Loves Me. A contemporary of playwright Ferenc Molnar, Laszló – who was of Jewish extraction – was born in Budapest, but heeded pre-World War II warnings and moved to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He married while there, and worked on numerous film scripts before dying in 1973 in New York City.

It is worth mentioning that the story does take place around Christmas, so it is considered a Christmas film. Though A Shop Around the Corner never had the critical or commercial impact of Stewarts’ Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, it did make Time Magazine’s list of top 100 films.

Here’s a short clip from one of the more lively parts of A Shop Around the Corner. If you look over James Stewart’s shoulder, you can see a street sign in Hungarian: a bit of Hollywood-created Budapest.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Location Spotter: Hortobágy, Hungary's Great Plain

via Wikipedia Commons

If any publication knows about fascinating travel destinations, it’s National Geographic. The magazine recently put together a list of the places their writers most want to visit, once travel restrictions allow. And, while we can’t say it is ‘no surprise’ that Hungary’s great Hortobágy plains, in the form of the Hortobágy National Park, made the list, it does make sense, given all the area has to offer.

Part of the greater area of the Alföld, Hortobágy National Park is a World Heritage Site, covering 800 square kilometers. Seemingly unimpressive — it is flat grasslands — at first sight, it takes a closer look for the area’s true wonders to reveal themselves. For instance, the plain is on the migratory path for many types of birds. The bird watching is amongst the best in the world. According to the article: “Poor soil for farming helped keep Hortobágy’s mosaic of alkaline marshes, meadows, pastures, and loess-steppe vegetation intact. Free from plowing and significant development, this puszta (barren land) flourished. The resulting rich grassland ecosystem, protected since 1973, provides critical habitat for some 340 bird species, including tens of thousands of winged fall migration travelers, such as gray geese and common cranes, that make the park one of central Europe’s best birding locations.”

via Wikipedia Commons

Not wanting for other wildlife, water buffalo roam the plain, and there is a reserve for wild endangered Przewalski horses. The steppe is also famous for its domesticated horses, and the horsemen — called csikós — who ride them. When training to ride for his film The Great Wall, Matt Damon spent time learning from Hungary’s best riders, who have practiced the art of mounted archery for centuries. Moreover, the puli, dogs that helped the csikós, are now world famous. Once near extinction, Hungarian Gray Cattle, are also at home in Hortobágy.

via By self2, CC BY 2.0 at Wikipedia Commons

Hortobágy National Park may indeed be one of the great treasures of Hungary. Due to its pristine grasslands and natural diversity, it’s only a matter of time, and the right conditions, for it to be an international travel destination. At least the people at National Geographic seem to think so.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Hungary's, and Perhaps the World's, First Celebrity Chef: Louis Szathmary

Once there was a celebrity chef who was both known for his prowess in the the kitchen, as well as foresight in utilizing modern technology to increase his brand recognition. This may sound like Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver, but rather we are talking about the Central European granddaddy of celebrity chefs: Louis Szathmary.

If the name Szathmary looks suspiciously Hungarian, that’s because it is. History (or WIkipedia) tells us that he was born on a train that was traveling from the Erdély (Transylvania) to Budapest as his parents rushed to escape the growing conflict between Hungary and Romania during WWI times. Szathmary would be educated in Budapest, earning a PhD in psychology, and fight with Hungary during WWII. It wasn’t until he was in his thirties that he emigrated to the United States, with no knowledge of English and 1.10 dollars in his pocket.

Eventually finding work for food manufacturer Armour/Stouffers, he helped pioneer methods for food storage, like flash freezing, and boil-in bags. As the company was based in Chicago, that’s where Szathmary elected to open his first restaurant, once he was ready. The Bakery, a Hungarian and Continental restaurant, quickly became legendary in a city filled with restaurants, and Szathmary became a local authority, writing a food column for Chicago’s biggest paper, the Chicago Sun Times. We’re not saying Gordon Ramsey stole his famous individual Beef Wellington recipe from Szathmary, but the Hungarian chef was the one to popularize the dish at The Bakery.

A highly educated and bookish man, Szathmary was said to have a library of 45,000 books, most of them cookbooks. He went on to write five cookbooks of his own, many still considered classics in the field. But like any celebrity chef, it’s via television that he is best known. Over 150 television appearances made him famous across America, necessitating the employment of three secretaries to keep up with his fan mail.

Sadly, the chef passed away in 1996. His fame in Hungary is limited, but in the States his cookbooks are still highly regarded, and the Bakery is still remembered. Not bad for a kid whose hometown was a train compartment.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Lake Balaton Wins By Landslide as Best Lake In Europe

via Wikipedia Commons by txd - originally posted to Flickr as Landscape in Hungary, CC BY 2.0,

Much of the world has had their eyes trained on screens of laptops and televisions in recent days, waiting for the outcome of the US presidential election. With Joe Biden finally pulling out the victory, it’s time to turn our attention to other relevant news: Biden’s connection to Hungary.

While President Elect Biden has no apparent Hungarian roots, Hungary does hold a place in his and his wife’s heart. It surfaced recently that the couple spent their honeymoon at Lake Balaton, Hungary’s massive, tranquil, and beautiful lake.

The story goes that Hungarian-American politician Tom Lantos (now deceased) was working with Biden in Washington, so many years ago, when the two struck up a friendship. It was Lantos who suggested the Hungarian destination of Lake Balaton for Biden and his new wife Jill. Lantos went so far as to accompany the Bidens on their trip, acting as tour guide. According the the Hungarian Spectrum:

“Tom Lantos organized everything and to Biden’s surprise he announced that he and his wife Annette would accompany the newlyweds. And indeed they went. All four of them. Biden later recalled that Lantos presented Hungary as if he were the CEO of a tourist agency. The best fish can be found in Hungary. Lake Balaton is the nicest lake in the whole world. The bridges across the Danube are the most spectacular in the universe. The world’s most famous scientists, actors, mathematicians, composers, and poets were all Hungarians. Not only Biden but scores of American delegations went to Hungary since and they all heard the same accolades from him.”

If you’ve been to Lake Balaton, you know Lantos is only slightly exaggerating. Known for its wonderful pike/perch, nightlife-friendly south side, and the sophisticated wine regions of its volcanic north, Lake Balaton has something for everybody. The other famous American couple who made Balaton their vacation spot, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, also spoke fondly of their time on the peninsula of Tihany, and for some time, were rumored to be contemplating buying a vacation home there.

Lake Balaton has long been a favorite holiday destination with folks from abroad, from Germans to Russians. For those living locally, no summer is complete without a trip to Balaton. So, should President Biden care to return to revisit his romantic memories, Balaton, while a bit more developed, is still Best Lake for Life, no recount needed.

via Wikipedia Commons By Oldmumus at Hungarian Wikipedia

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Filmed in Budapest: Radioactive

This is the time of year when we’d normally write a horror/pagan/spooky type post. But this year, we’ll leave that for the news. Instead, we’ll take this opportunity to promote a film about internal strength and fortitude, that was, of course, filmed for the most part in Hungary. Radioactive, which was scheduled to be released last summer in theatres, but due to circumstances, was put out digitally, is a film about French scientist Marie Curie, who among other accomplishments, discovered radioactivity, helping to revolutionise physics and chemistry. One wants to paint Curie as an underdog, and indeed she did suffer for being a woman in a male-dominated field, but she also has the distinction of being one of the very few people to win a Nobel Prize twice.

Staring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie, the production summoned Budapest’s pre-war feel as a stand-in for Curie’s hometown of Paris. The production also traveled to Esztergom to make use of the quaint, romantic exteriors that small city offers. Radioactive was directed by Marjane Satrapi, whose international smash graphic novel Persepolis helped her launch a career in film. The source material for Radioactive was also a graphic novel: Radioactive by Lauren Redniss. The New York Times called the film “thoughtful,” and “very watchable.”

CNN Traveler had a word with Pike about her experience in Budapest, and she had nothing but glowing things to report: “We filmed on Zoltán Utca and transformed it into the most beautiful Parisian street scene, with cafes, flower sellers, horses, and carriages. It is the first time we see the young Marie [in the film] and she is so absorbed in her book that she bumps into Pierre [Curie]. This is their first meeting. We also used the Ethnographic Museum as the Sorbonne University lecture hall where Marie first announces her discovery of radioactivity and the two new elements she and Pierre discovered and named: Radium and Polonium (named after her native Poland). And we shot inside the same building that houses Brody House, which is a bit like Budapest’s answer to Soho House. Like you get in Europe, it’s this wonderful, old building with beautiful apartments with very, very high ceilings. It’s very Parisian. So, we used part of that house to be Marie and Pierre’s apartment.”

Once again, Budapest becomes a master of disguises. Pike went on in the interview to praise the city’s cultural riches, and even found what she called some of the ‘best vegetarian’ food of her life.

As Amazon Studios was in part behind the production (along with StudioCanal UK), it is no surprise that you can stream Radioactive on Amazon. Meanwhile, here’s the trailer.

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Hárslevelű : Hungary's complex hidden grape gem

photo by András Kovács, via Wikipedia Commons

As the leaves fall from the trees, and drizzle falls from the sky, poetic minds turn to things of beautiful decay. And there is no better way to rhapsodize about a pretty autumn day than with a glass of Hungarian Hárslevelű in hand. Hárslevelű , for those who don’t know, is one of the varietals that originate in Hungary, like its more famous cousin, Furmint. While it can be found in Germany, where it goes by the name of Lindenblättriger, or in France, where it is known as Feuille de Tilleul , it’s in Hungary where the grape is most warmly embraced.

There is no doubt that the wine it produces has a distinctive flavour: deep, crisp, and botanic. Despite its complexity, it is frequently used as table wine in Hungary, but is also mixed with Furmint grapes to create the famous dessert wines of Tokaj. The connoisseurs of Wikipedia describe the flavour of Hárslevelű as such: “Vinified as a pure varietal dry wine, Hárslevelű is capable of yielding a dense, full-bodied, green-gold wine with an intense aroma of spice, pollen and elderflowers.”

Named for the Linden tree leaf that its own leaves resemble, Hárslevelű is centuries old in these parts. Despite its age, it has yet to earn the respect of a grape like Furmint, or even Olaszrizling, Hungary’s Italian Riesling. Taste Hungary, a wine-tour and purveyor in Hungary, explains why: “Unfortunately, Hárslevelű is also tarred with a brush from Hungary’s socialist past, which doesn’t do anything to further its case. Many people still see the off-dry Debrői Hárslevelű as a reference for the variety. Debrői Hárslevelű is a brand assigned to Debrő in the Eger wine region during the planned economy and synonymous with high yields, poor quality and often added sweetness. To add insult to injury, 15 percent of other varieties, even aromatic ones such as Tramini, can be added to the brew, thus giving Hárslevelű the image of sweet, aromatic plonk.”

All that said, Hárslevelű is hitting a sweet spot, where it is becoming more sought after by wine lovers, taken more seriously by wine-makers, but still has the image of a budget grape, keeping the price reasonable. And, like Furmint, you can practically taste the autumn sun in every sip, even if its a bit clouded over.

Hárslevelű grapes via Monika at Wikipedia Commons

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.

Location Spotter: Continental Europe's Oldest Metro: the M1

via Wikipedia Commons

With the highly Instagramable new metro line in Budapest — the M4 — the city’s fourth metro line, it is easy to forget that Budapest also has one of the oldest continually functioning metro lines in Europe: the M1, locally known as the Kisföldalatti, or ‘ little underground’. It has the distinction of being the first metro line constructed on continental Europe.

With the construction of Budapest’s most elegant street, Andrássy Avenue around 1872, local politicians saw an opportunity to modernize transportation in the city without damaging the pristine architecture of the streetscape. It would take twenty years for construction of the project to commence in 1894. Two-thousand workers were employed for two years on the project, allowing the M4 to be inaugurated on May 2, 1896 by emperor Franz Joseph. In its initial years, it carried around 35,000 people a year from the head of Andrássy Avenue up to and under the City Park to the City Zoo. Today it transports over 100,000 people annually over the eleven stations, which run a total of 4.1 kilometers.

via Wikipedia Commons

While the trollies have been updated, the platforms have an ‘old world’ pre-war feeling. The exterior entrances are done in ceramic and metal work that echoes the secessionist style of the State Opera House, which it passes along its route. Though the M4 may be the newer and flashier addition to public transport in Budapest (media hog!) it is the M1 that remains a favorite with metro enthusiasts, and an ideal location to convey the ‘modern’ aspirations of old world Europe.

via Wikipedia Commons

Flatpack Films has many years of experience dedicated to offering expert servicing. It has brought the best of Hungary to countless brands, agencies, and production companies through its unique locations, exceptionally skilled crews, top of the line equipment and technical solutions. Backed by an impeccable track record, Flatpack Films has worked with world-class clients including Samsung, Samsonite, Toyota, Braun, Chivas Regal and many more - bringing their projects to life through a highly bespoke approach.