18/04/2017 - Emerging director György Kristóf will unveil his feature debut in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard next month

Out by György Kristóf

On the heels of the announcement that Slovakian student Michal Blaško will be competing in the Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation with his short film Atlantis, 2003 (read the news), it has now been revealed that emerging director György Kristóf will have the privilege of world-premiering his feature debut on the Croisette. His first feature-length effort, Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: György Kristóf
film profile], which doubles as his graduation film, is set to compete in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. The project travelled extensively while at the development stage (taking part in MIDPOINT, Pitch & Feedback at Karlovy Vary, BES’T EAVE, and the New Cinema Network in Rome) and was the first Slovak (and Czech) project chosen for the Cinéfondation Atelier in 2015 (read the news). 

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Written by György Kristóf, Eszter Horváth and Gábor Papp, the story follows fifty-something family man Ágoston (Sándor Terhes), who, after losing his job, embarks on a journey through Eastern Europe to forge a new career and make one of his dreams come true – to catch a big fish. On the journey, he becomes increasingly tangled up in absurd events and encounters. The director explains, “I didn’t want to shoot a socio-psychological film,” adding that the story is inspired by the fate of his father. “But it is a kind of compressed image of the world with absurd humour, an examination of society and human behaviour in borderline situations.” The director stated that his aim was to “‘empty’ the viewer through expressive minimalism and absurd humour”.

Out was produced by Marek Urban for Slovak outfit Sentimentalfilm, which also staged the international success Koza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile], and was co-produced by Jiří Konečný, of Endorfilm (Czech Republic), Ferenc Pusztai, of KMH Film Productions (Hungary), Guillaume de Seille, of Arizona Productions (France) and Film Angels Studio (Latvia). The film was shot by György Pálfi’s regular DoP, Gergely Pohárnok, in locations such as Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia and Estonia. The Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Hungarian National Film Fund and Czech State Cinematography Fund supported the project.