Picture to download Prizes: 2003 - Budapest Hungarian Film Week Main Prize, Best Sound: Róbert Juhász

Hungarian Beauty (Magyar szépség) (2003, feature, 35mm, colour, 107 min., 1:1,85, DolbySRD) Director: Péter Gothár Screenplay: Péter Gothár, Pál Závada Director of photography: Francisco Gózon, Tamás Babos Editor: Anna Kornis Music: György Orbán, András Lovasi Sound: Róbert Juhász Art director: Berta Csikszentmihályi, Zsolt Khell, Péter Gothár Costumes: János Breckl Production manager: Judit Schmidt Producer: József Berger, István Kardos Production company: Mythberg Films Cast: Gábor Máté, Dorottya Udvaros, Enikő Börcsök The story imparted by this film could be set in another place at another time, and could even be regarded as an archaic topos. However, "Hungarian Beauty" takes place here and now, in the very present, and in this very place, i.e. Budapest. The story strives to probe the generational problems of two neighbouring families. Using the relationship between the generation of parents who are approaching their fifties, and their children, who are poised to enter adulthood, the film deals with the question of whether it is possible to get to know, understand, and support each other, or such an endeavour is bound to meet with failure here and now, and for good; it explores the effect on characters in an intense situation when they are constantly doomed to failure in their family-, love-, friendship-, neighbourhood-, and work relationships. The characters are themselves both the sufferers and instigators of their - by now anything but unusual - troubles, and these are set to take on catastrophic proportions. Among the characters is a food technician, who has turned fifty and who has "already put his name on a tombstone"; his wife, who for a long time has had problems with her entrepreneurial ideas and much more; the new "proactive man" of the company, who interferes in both their lives; a Soviet officer in the neighbouring house, left over from old times and his fortune teller wife; a female piano teacher; and the young loving couple, who have to battle with their own peculiar family history background among other things. The film's protagonist delves into the dreams of his youth for the last time, into freedom, and unexpected and impossible emotions, but in the end is only allowed to reach the doorstep of hope. Festivals: 2005 - Mumbai International Film Festival 2005 - Pune International Film Festival 2004 - Goa International Film Festival of India 2003 - Budapest Hungarian Film Week (in competition) 2003 - Copenhagen CPH:PIX (in competition)