György Szomjas

Two Hungarian documentary makers, having heard nothing about their countryman Mickey Hargitay for almost 15 years, embark on a quest for the former body-builder/B-movie star. They cross America and find Mickey, living quietly in Southern California, running his businesses and raising his children, who have names like Mariska (ring a bell?) and Zoltan, speak Hungarian, and look like Jane Mansfield (of course).

The sad tale of a proletarian malcontent ensconced in a monstrously depressing housing project who—even less effectually than the heroes of Bald-Dog Rock—attempts to change his life. Purchasing a power drill and slinging it across his shoulder like the anti-hero of a spaghetti western, he turns entrepreneur, boring holes in his neighbors’ walls so that they can hang mirrors or pictures.

1979. Gábor H. works in a law enforcement institution. He robs a bank branch, gets into jail. 1989. Gábor H. and the similarly unemployed Sanyi want to get money by robbing.

Legends circulate in the public consciousness about Kex, which existed from late 1968 to the autumn of 1971. For baby boomers, it represented freedom and spontaneity. The band rejected the world of Communist cultural policy with its uniqueness and refusal to conform, something in which the best of the artistic intelligentsia and political dissidents saw value. They attended their concerts, and the film recalls their experiences. At times, one feels as if they are watching a spy film parody, as one gains insight into the secret files containing reports from agents embedded within the audience.

It is 1989, the year of the demise of socialism in eastern Europe. Nevertheless, the one theme of Junk Movie does not refer to this historical moment of high ideals, quite the contrary, the wild, burlesque of a motif-mozaic seems merely to stick it’s tongue out at the arrogant players of politics who have their heads stuck in the clouds. The film rudely points out the mystery and unapproachability surrounding the every-day existence of politics. The scene is a greasy, falling-down block of a pub called the Gólya and its immediate surroundings.

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Some of the most symbolic moments of the 1956 Revolution in Hungary were the tooth-and-nail battles fought by the so-called 'Pest Lads' who dared to defy odds by taking on the panzers of one of the world's superpowers. The story begins on October 23rd, 1956 and ends on November 4th of the same year. Juli is Totya's girlfriend but also loves Gábor. Their love triangle will have to endure the trials and tribulations of these stirring times. A group of boys living in the outskirts of the capital are playing football in abandoned lot when Juli, a ticket inspector, brings news of protests breaking out in the city. Only Gábor accompanies her into town and together they become part of this historical event. At dawn, when the boys too come under fire from Soviet forces, they decide to join in the fight.

Karesz has been raised in an institution, his mother has a new family, and her husband does not tolerate that she meets her first-born son. Karesz tramps, joining up with his casual pals he washes the windscreens of cars, sells newspapers; sometimes they steal, or break into houses if hired.

After the 1848/49 War of Independence in the Transdanubian region. János Hegyesi, a late veteran of the War of Independence, is given the task by the chief bailiff Mérei to round up the gangs of outlaws who are rioting in Somogy County.

A Hungarian band plays American rock & roll and blues hits with great enthusiasm and passion, but success seems to avoid them. TV and radio don't play their songs, sometimes even their crowd just sits and sips beer. Something must be done, and the band's leader (Lóránt Schuster) comes up with the big idea: write and play songs for the people about themselves and not about some exotic, but too distant people's life. "We move from Tobacco Road to Retek street." With the remains of the band and a second singer (Gyula Deák "Bill") they find what they failed to show people before. The rich new sound can finally translate the spirit of blues and rock much more than words from any dictionaries could, this is the Kőbánya blues.

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Documentary about the Italian men that visit Hungary to meet girls and the Hungarian women that fall in love with them.

In the 1830s, legendary outlaw Farkos Csapó Gyurka escapes from prison and returns to the Hungarian Great Plain to avenge his betrayal and reclaim his dominance over the puszta. While the local impoverished herdsmen protect him, a determined peace officer relentlessly hunts the bandit to establish modern legal order.

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The story of a quirky love affair between Angi, an independent, no-nonsense social worker from a working-class district of Budapest and, Ildikó, a young mother who recently separated from her husband.

Margó and Ildi are good friends. Margó lives with her simple, conservative parents, her fiancé is a roadie, her lover has been in prison for two years. Ildi was a pupil of a reformatory school, she buried an Araba husband already and her Rumanian partner is living in Paris. She lives together with a Yugoslavian man in a rented flat. Both are models at the Scholl for Fine Arts, attend an evening school and earn their money by selling their bodies. The lover of Margó, Attila is suddenly released. Margó and Ildi want to get rid of him, but Attila does not let them do that...

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After serving a prison sentence for a street fight, Csaba returns home to find his wife, Éva, now living with another man, Miklós. With nowhere else to go, Csaba is forced to share their small apartment, leading to constant friction and escalating provocations.

The particular interest of György Szomjas’s short documentary is that it immortalizes the work of the Szeged University Stage headed by István Paál (although it is not named in the film), which after 15 March 1973 was officially recategorized from ‘tolerated’ to ‘banned’. On hearing about events in Chile in early March of that year (a temporary upsurge in popularity for the left wing at elections), young students dramatized the news first in spontaneous play and then in directed exercises. Viewed in the knowledge of what subsequently occurred in Chile, the group’s liberated acting is tinted with tragedy.