From 15 February to 6 April, we will screen ten films from the 2022 Verzió Film Festival's program at the Blinken OSA Archivum.
The audience can watch again the Audience Award winner of the 19th Verzió, The Killing of a Journalist, about the assassination of the Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciák. Several Hungarian documentaries that were popular at the festival will be screened: It Has Passed, and It's Fine, Howling Like We Do, KIM and Holy Dilemma; after each Hungarian film the filmmakers will be present too.
On 16 March, there will be a unique opportunity to see one of the most extraordinary films of the past year, All That Breathes, a documentary which tells the story of two Indian brothers who save black kites with stunning imagery. The film was awarded at Sundance and Cannes in 2022 and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2023.
Fragments of Paradise, a film about the life and work of Lithuanian-born American independent filmmaker Jonas Mekas, will be screened at the end of March. The film won the Best Documentary Award last year in Venice.
Mekas' diary film, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, was screened at Verzión in 2019.
Each screening will be accompanied by a discussion.
The screenings are free of charge, but registration is required by filling this form.
In addition to the Budapest program, there will also be Re:Verzió screenings at the Apolló Cinema in Pécs, the Otthon Cinema in Kecskemét, the Grand Café and Megálló in Szeged, and the Malter in Debrecen.
The venue of the screenings in Budapest:
Blinken OSA Archivum, 1051 Budapest, Arany János u. 32.
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PROGRAM SCHEDULE:
February 15. Wednesday 18:00
Short films: It Has Passed, and It's Fine + memoria + Away
Following the screening of the short films, Szabolcs Szirony will talk to Zsuzsa Debre director. (Hungarian only)
It Has Passed, and It's Fine
(in Hungarian with English subtitles)
2022, 28 minutes
director: Zsuzsa Debre
Through thoughtful formal solutions, the use of archival footage, and the recording of intimate situations, the film displays the nostalgic relationship women who once worked in the Ózd Metallurgical Plants have with the past. Conversations in the hair salon reveal the everyday and community life of working families before the change of the regime, and a femininity rarely seen on film.
memoria
(in Slovakian with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2021, 22 minutes
director: Peter Podolský
The film has been compilated from archival footage belonging to the estate of Jozef Homer (1924–1992). Lying dormant in the attic of his house in Záhorská Ves, Slovakia, for 30 years, the archive contained more than 15,000 analog photographs, 27 reels of 8mm film, and 21 tapes. The film explores the disintegration of memory through physical intervention in the material of the film, and offers a space to reflect on one's own memory and the nature of time.
Away
(in Ukrainian with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 28 minutes
director: Ruslan Fedotow
Andrii and Alisa, Ukrainian teenagers, have escaped the shelling of their native Kharkiv to Budapest. They hold after-school drawing classes for Ukrainian refugee children, and await news from their families back home. News reports and phone calls with family bring the harsh everyday reality of the war into their lives, while their street art protest engages and provokes the passersby.
February 22. Wednesday 18:00
Outside
(in Ukrainian and Russian with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 79 minutes
director: Olha Zhurba
Following the screening, Fanni Somlyai will talk to Lilla Eredics sociologist (Romaversitas) and Katinka Rácz and Janka Tóth social workers (Dévai Fogadó). (Hungarian only)
It’s 2014 and 13-year-old Roma joins the revolution by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in the streets of Kyiv. Beneath the camouflage uniform and sunglasses hides a lonely orphan. Five years later, Roma is a young man with nothing but a lighter and a knife in his pockets. Through phone conversations with filmmaker Olha Zhurba, and seven years of footage of Roma drifting through life, the story of a rootless boy and a scattered family takes shape. Standing on the brink of adulthood, can Roma finally take control of his life?
March 1. Wednesday 18:00
Howling Like We Do
(in Hungarian, Slovakian and French with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 97 minutes
director: Asia Dér
Following the screening, Péter Horányi will talk to Asia Dér director. (Hungarian only)
A self-educated, working-class avant-garde poet, Lajos Kassák walked across Europe in torn slippers, published an antimilitarist journal in wartime, fought Italian futurists, and believed in the revolutionary power of art to change the world. What answers does he provide to current social, historical and artistic challenges? What is the something “better, more humane than the old” that today’s artists are fighting for? The film looks to contemporary Hungarian and Slovak artists for answers to Kassák’s revolutionary and deeply human dilemmas.
March 8. Wednesday 18:00
KIM
(in Hungarian, English, French and German with English Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 85 minutes
director: Erika Kapronczai
After the screening there will be a Q&A with Erika Kapronczai. Moderator: Péter Horányi.
Kim Corbisier was an enigmatic figure in Budapest. Ten years ago, director Erika Kapronczai approached her to make a short film, but after spending some time with Kim, abandoned this idea to document her struggle with methadone addiction, a project which also went unfinished when Kim committed suicide at the age of 27, leaving behind a small, but powerful oeuvre. Kim left Kapronczai her video camera along with some mesmerizing footage, which became their third and only completed film collaboration.
March 16. Thursday 18:00
All that Breathes
(in Hindi with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 94 minutes
director: Shaunak Sen
Following the screening, Gabriella Boldog talks to Albert László and Lenke Tóta bird rescuers. (Hungarian only)
In one of the world’s most populated cities, brothers Nadeem and Saud devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite. This majestic bird of prey is essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi, but has been falling from the sky at alarming rates. Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the “kite brothers” spend day and night caring for the creatures in their makeshift avian hospital. The film explores the connection between the kites and the brothers, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence.
March 23. Thursday 18:00
The Killing of a Journalist
(in Slovakian and English with Hungarian and English subtitles)
2022, 100 minutes
director: Matt Sarnecki
Following the screening, Dávid Klág (Telex) talks to Szabolcs Dull (Telex). (Hungarian only)
Investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée were brutally murdered in 2018. Their deaths inspired the biggest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism. The investigation into their deaths takes an unexpected turn when a secret file is leaked to the murdered journalist’s colleagues. It includes messages from the alleged mastermind of the assassination, a businessman closely connected to the country’s ruling party. Trawling through the encrypted messages, journalists discover that their country has been taken over by corrupt oligarchs, judges, and law enforcement officials. A reckoning awaits.
March 30. Thursday 18:00
Fragments of Paradise
(in English and Lithuanian with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 98 minutes
director: KD Davison
Following the screening, Péter Lichter (director, teacher at the University of Pécs) will be our guest. Moderator: Fanni Somlyai. (Hungarian only)
For over 70 years, Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas documented his life in his diary films. From his arrival in New York in 1949 as a displaced person, to his death in 2019, he chronicled the haunting trauma and loss of exile that stayed with him. He also pioneered institutions to support independent film and aspiring independent artists, many of whom were drawn to his indefatigable spirit. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate construction from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries—including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It’s the story of finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man trying to make sense of it all with a camera.
April 6. Thursday 18:00
Holy Dilemma
(in Hungarian and Italian with English and Hungarian subtitles)
2022, 81 minutes
directors: Márton Vízkelety, Julianna Ugrin
Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Julianna Ugrin and Márton Vízkelety directors. Moderator: Péter Horányi. (in Hungarian only)
Father Róbert is outgoing, cheerful, and loved and respected by the entire community. His initiatives are as essential for the development of the village as his soccer skills are for the local sports club. Few people know, however, about his life partner and their three children. When the priest decides to leave the community, his followers cry with disappointment. But while still on the job, his family misses him dearly. Directors Julianna Ugrin and Márton Vízkelety depict a systemic problem facing priests worldwide in this personal story.
