Máté Konkol
Directing
Biography
Máté Konkol is a director, producer and editor. While at university, he was an assistant to Crystal Globe winner director Szabolcs Hajdu on It’s Not the Time of My Life (2016), and Oscar winner László Nemes on Sunset (2018). He regularly writes on film industry and cultural politics. His latest short films are coming-of-age stories about seeking sexual and political identity, all this through the lens of gender and class consciousness: Budapest, Closed City (2021), then Reap What You Sow (2023). Books Are Our Weapons will be his first feature.
Known For
A socially committed student commune gathers in its yearly camp to welcome new members, debate on feminism, culture critique and direct democracy, but also sit by the fireplace and sing songs of the movement.
Books Are Our Weapons
Boys on Film presents ten encounters from across the globe, where the dangerous allure of a risky attraction yields emotional results — proving that the age-old adage of taking the plunge is as relevant — and sexy — as ever before. The 10 short films are: My Uncle's Friend [O Amigo do Meu Tio] (2021); Budapest, Closed City [Budapest, zárt város] (2021); Eden (2020); Chaperone (2022); Break Me [Knus meg] (2018); By His Will [שעשני כרצונו] (2021); Red Ants Bite (2019); Jim (2022); Hornbeam (2022); Too Rough (2022).
Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know
A widower starts hoping that he might be able to connect with the lady next door.
Kikelet
Peter takes his British friend Adam on a personal but political tour around Budapest. In an underground club, Adam makes a move at Peter — who now has to come clear with his own feelings.
Budapest, Closed City
A teenage girl from the countryside has to grow up quickly when an innocent game goes wrong.
Vakáció
In the autumn of 2024, aliens quietly arrived on Earth with peaceful intentions and called us, Budapest Bike Mafia, to help them learn about humans and their life on Earth. Together with our reporter and our extraterrestrial friend, we visited four homeless shelters to find answers to questions such as: why is it worth living in this world? What brings joy and happiness? What values exist for those who have plenty and for those who have little?
Szállóige
Found footage supercut, mashup of Hungarian feature films about the 1956 revolution.
19 minutes, 56 seconds
Short, personal and poetic documentary etude
Böszörményi út
A week in the life of 19-years-old Noémi, a first-generation college student who recently moved to Budapest from the country, as she is becoming independent from her controlling mother and starts taking full time shifts at a toy store to support herself. In the meantime, she's facing how hard life is as a woman, especially coming from a working-class background.
Reap What You Sow
Short documentary about Budapest pubs located in houses that were marked with Jewish yellow stars in 1944.