04/03/2010

In Hungarian theatres, Hungaricom is today launching Tamás Dömötör’s second feature: Czukor Show [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. This Hungarian/Swedish co-production, whose cast includes Zsolt Anger, Attila Árpa, Szilvia Csonka, Balázs Czukor and Kata Péter, analyses the cruel consequences of a TV show focusing on families.

Scripted by the director, the film is based on Milán Füst’s stage play, The Unhappy Ones, written in 1914 and inspired by the suicide of a married man’s mistress. Struck by a news report from a few years ago about a parent confessing to the murder of their child on television, Tamás Dömötör wanted to modernise Füst’s play by placing his film’s plot at the centre of a TV talk show.

A man from the countryside takes part in the show at the request of his sister, whom he hasn’t seen for six years. She has decided to bring her family together before the cameras.

Emotions overflow and two tragedies unfold at the same time: a love triangle and the broader issue of media exploitation of personal distress. Added to this is a western investor attracted by the potential profits of the media market in Eastern Europe.

Produced by Ferenc Pusztai (Producer on the Move 2007) for KMH Film and by Dropout-Film, Czukor Show received co-production support from Swedish company Anagram Produktion and backing from the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMKA). The €370,000 film had a quick ten-day shoot.

Also hitting Hungarian screens this Thursday are Jan Kounen’s French feature Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Szuez Film); Jean-Marc Vallée’s UK/US co-production The Young Victoria [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Budapest Film); and 2008 Cannes Camera d’Or-winner Hunger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Hastings-Smith Rob…
interview: Steve McQueen
film profile] by UK director Steve McQueen (Mozinet).

(Translated from French)