08/02/2023 - 19 Hungarian films to come, completed or in post-production, including Semmelweis by Lajos Koltai, will be showcased at the EFM

Semmelweis by Lajos Koltai

It’s with a huge lineup that the international sales team of the NFI (National Film Institute Hungary), lead by Klaudia Androsovits, will arrive at the European Film Market of the 73rd Berlinale (from 16 to 26 February).

Among the twenty or so upcoming films (completed or in post-production) on showcase stands out Semmelweis, the third directorial feature by cinematographer Lajos Koltai, who made his directorial debut with Fateless [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in competition at the 2005 Berlinale). This time, the filmmaker has embarked on a biopic based on a script written by Balázs Maruszki and Anett Kormos. The story plunges Vienna into 1947. Ignaz Semmelweis (Miklós Vecsei H.), an angry but passionate Hungarian doctor, performs daily deliveries and autopsies while searching for the cause of child fever, the mysterious epidemic that decimates the hospital's patients. His boss forbids him to conduct research on the subject and sends his right-hand man to oppose him at every turn. He also forces a young midwife, Emma Hoffmann (Katica Nagy), to spy on him. After a rocky start, the relationship between Semmelweis and Emma develops into a romance. When Semmelweis' friend is injured in the middle of an autopsy and dies with the same symptoms as the women in labour, Semmelweis discovers the cause and prevention of child fever. Half of his peers discredit him, but he continues to fight to prove his theory at all costs... The film was produced by Szupermodern Stúdió.

Also in the NFI World Sales line-up are Áron Gauder's animated film Four Souls of Coyote [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Áron Gauder
film profile] (revealed with The District), which delves into the present and the cosmology of the American Indians, János Szikora's historical film Hadik (the adventures of a famous Hungarian general in the 18th century) and a wave of first features supported by the NFI's Incubator programme: Cat Call [+see also:
film review
interview: Rozália Szeleczki
film profile] by Rozália Szeleczki, Growing Old by Dániel Bálint Sós (with Szabolcs Hajdu in the lead – article), All About The Levkoviches by Ádám Breier, Without Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katalin Moldovai
film profile] by Katalin Moldovai, Some Birds by Daniel Hever (article), Wandering Leaves by Mátyás Szabó and the documentaries I Won't Die by Asia Dér and Recovery Wall by Ádám Miklós.

Also worth mentioning are Arpad Sopsits' Supporting Actors, András Fésös' Rise Up and Walk, Dóra Szücs' romantic drama Our Blossom, György Dobray's docu-drama Habiszti - Just Because! and Attila Szabó's documentary Bölöni, Story of a Legend, Tamás Zákonyi S.'s Golds of The Nation, Kornél Kussinszky's Operation Polonia 1920, and Gergely Hajnal's Rescue. And let's not forget films that received attention at festivals last year, such as Six Weeks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Noemi Veronika Szakonyi
film profile] by Noemi Veronika Szakonyi (unveiled in Sarajevo, awarded in Arras and Tallinn), Larry by Szilárd Bernath (best first film in Cottbus), Half Way Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Isti Madarasz and Not A Thing [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Fanni Szilagyi (awarded at the New York Film Week).

(Translated from French)