Picture to download Prizes: 1999 - Manchester Film Festival Best Independent Film

The Alchemist and the Virgin (Az alkimista és a szűz) (1999, feature, 35mm, colour, 95 min.) Director: Zoltán Kamondi Screenplay: Zoltán Kamondi Director of photography: Gábor Medvigy Editor: Zsuzsa Pósán Music: László Melis Sound: György Kovács Visual design: Attila F. Kovács, Márton Ágh Costumes: Krisztina Berzsenyi Production manager: Judit Schmidt Producer: Péter Miskolczi, Károly Makk, Jolán Árvai Production company: Eurofilm Studio, Hungarian Television, Artcam International / FR, Studio Filmowe TOR / PL Cast: Mariusz Bonaszewcki, Eszter Ónodi, Szaflarska Danuta, Norbert Növényi, Péter Haumann, Erika Bodnár Alchemy could be the metaphor of our age. Its goal is spiritual, human and material at the same time. László Sziráki PhD, a young university professor of extraordinary talent, a master of the art of living and a great womanizer, struggles with permanent financial problems. He is searching for the secret of medieval alchemists and is ready to sacrifice everything to create the great work, Opus Magnum. His mystical and fatal encounter with Eszténa, a strange virgin in search of an ecstatic completion of life, takes Sziráki closer to the solution – a chance he is does not realize. Other key figures of the story, abounding with unexpected turns, are: Zsófika, Sziráki’s wise and gracious grandmother, who lives under the spell of music and poetry; Maci, a sentimental mountain of flesh who is crazy about Eszténa and would do anything for her, earns his living as a gladiator at prize-winning human fights until the day he dies; and a village priest for whom a well-paying miracle would be worth anything. They all try to lure Sziráki and his friends to their own world…