Picture to download Prizes: 2000 - Angers Premiers Plans Best Actress: Tsu Yu Shimizu 1999 - Budapest Hungarian Film Week Best Screenplay: András Salamon 1999 - Cottbus FilmFestival FIPRESCI Prize 1999 - Pescara International Film Festival Best Film

Close to Love (Közel a szerelemhez) (1999, feature, 35mm, colour, 98 min.) Director: András Salamon Screenplay: András Salamon Director of photography: András Nagy Editor: Ágnes Incze Music: Anima Sound System, Gábor Németh, Szabolcs Prieger, Zsolt Prieger Sound: István Sipos Visual design: János Szabolcs Costumes: János Breckl Production manager: Gábor Bódis Producer: Sándor Simó Production company: Mafilm Aktív Studio, Hungarian Television, Hunnia Film Studio, RTL Klub Cast: Ferenc Hujber, Tsu Yu Shimizu, Nimród Antal, János Gyuriska, Károly Gesztesi, Erzsi Pásztor, Flóra Kádár ”You have to imagine me as an observant, quiet and lonely child. But I loved the ranch and I loved going into the village. Going to a town, let alone the capital, never even occurred to me. In our family, we did not use to talk with each other. We loved each other, but there was never talking. I don’t even remember that we ever really had a conversation or that my parents or grandparents talked to each other. There was silence rather. But it was a good, calm silence. We didn’t disturb each other, no one was nervous and there were no fights. Sometimes in the evening we often sat in the kitchen for hours after supper and no one said a word. Like I said, we really loved each other very much, but somehow this custom remained from the old times. I think it used to be like that with my grandmother’s and my grandfather’s family, too, when they were little. It was all quiet, they did not speak, either. To animals one talks more, for after all you have to tell them where to go or what to do.”